Paul Rodgers: Adam Lambert Singer 'Sempurna' For Queen

JAKARTA - In an interview with Billy Sloan from BBC Radio Scotland, legendary vocalist Paul Rodgers reflected his experience of becoming Queen's vocalist between 2004 and 2009.

"Brian [May, guitarist Queen] said to me, 'Can we get together and do some shows for fun in Europe?' And I said, 'Well, that sounds good.' Because we played All Right Now together and we played We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions, and that made sense at the time," Paul started.

"They are very versatile; their music, I mean, wow. There are so many great songs they have - the hits they have. I said, 'Of course, let's just do it. Let's just do it a few times and see how it's going.' Yes, some of those dates changed to four years. We went around the world twice, and we made a studio album, so it's really involved," he continued.

"But, in the end, I thought that I was too far from my own kind of music and I wanted to stay away from that. But it was a wild and exciting journey."

Regarding his approach to singing songs originally written and recorded by Queen's late vocalist Freddie Mercury, Paul said: "Well, I wonder, really, what do people think about it, but basically I've always followed music anywhere in my life; I just followed the music. And for me, when we played together - if we didn't play together, I might think twice."

"But we've done it, and the musicals who successfully played All Right Now with them and we too, then, played Feel Like Making Love, played Wishing Well, and everyone else, they performed amazingly. Brian is a great guitar player, so there's no problem there. And I say to myself, 'Now, how do I do this, because I don't really want to be someone else. I want to be myself.'"

"And actually, Brian Johnson of AC/DC, I read his interview once, and when he was about to join the band, and the first night on stage, the guitar player (Angus Young) said to him, and he looked very nervous, and he was very nervous, that's how he said in this interview, and he said, 'Hey, don't worry about anything. Go and be yourself.' And I read the interview, 'That's what I'm going to do. I'm not going to try to replace anyone, I'm just going to be myself.' So what I do is I start interpreting their songs in my own way, and that's how I handle them."

Asked what he thought about Adam Lambert, the runner-up of the 2009 American Idol who led Queen's current incarnation, Paul said: "Well, you know, I think he's perfect for this band... I haven't followed them too much. Since then, but from what I care about him, he's great."