Rolling Stone @rollingstone
Queen keyboardist Spike Edney looks back on his 35 years with the band, from playing Trivial Pursuit with Freddie Mercury to discovering Adam Lambert on #AmericanIdol
rol.st/2ztXzheThe band’s secret weapon shares 35 years of Queen memories, from playing Trivial Pursuit with Freddie Mercury to discovering Adam Lambert on ‘American Idol’
Adam's parts:
I’ve seen Marc Martel on YouTube and he sounds just like Freddie, but you don’t want an impersonator.No. That’s the last thing you want because then you become a tribute band. You don’t want people saying, “That was just like Freddie, but he’s not Freddie.” The thing is Adam [Lambert] doesn’t sound like Freddie, but he’s a fabulous singer and people have now put that to one side and said, “OK, he’s not Freddie, doesn’t sound like Freddie, doesn’t look like Freddie, but he’s bloody brilliant at what he does.”
Tell me your first memory of hearing him sing.My wife was the first person who heard him. We were in Joshua Tree and I sat outside our little cabin that we have there, our love shack, and she said, “You better come in and watch this.” I said, “What’s this?” And she said, “This is American Idol.” I said, “I don’t need to watch that. There’s nothing for me there.” But she said, “No, come in.”
I went in to refill my martini and I just caught the last minute of him singing “Whole Lotta Love.” When he got to the very end I thought, “Here we go. Here’s where it counts.” He sang the final cadence and just flew threw it. It was effortless. I thought, “Wow. That takes some signing chops to be able to sing that with that kind of confidence.” And then I googled him and the first thing I saw was him singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” a cappella at his audition. I sent off an e-mail saying, “I found a live one.”
Who did you send it to?Roger. And I don’t know what week that was in the process, but obviously by the time the finale came around, Queen got asked to perform there with the two finalists, who were Adam and the other guy that nobody can remember [Kris Allen]. The deal was sealed then and there. They were aware of him because Roger had been keeping an eye on him from that moment on when I e-mailed him. And then they got together and he’s obviously a charming man and he can sing like not many people can sing. The universe put the elements together.
Did any part of you worry he was too young or anything? Did you have any doubts?No. It was all about the singing for me and the fact he looked like Elvis on TV. I thought, “You can’t go wrong with this. A gay Elvis that can sing Queen songs? Where’s the downside? There isn’t one.”
How were the first rehearsals with Adam?Painless. The first thing we did together was the MTV Europe awards in Belfast. Again, a medley was the order of the day in order to get a whole bunch of songs in there. That was followed by another performance at the iHeartRadio festival in Las Vegas. Those two performances really proved that he had the chops, but also the stage presence.
These guys like to work really quick. They don’t like to hang around and they don’t like to spend too much time messing around with something. It either works or it’s discarded. Fortunately, Adam turned up pretty prepped. When we said, “Let’s try this,” he was on it. We didn’t have to spend too much time breaking him in, so to speak. He was also very good at taking direction. And he suddenly realized I was his biggest ally, so he kept his eye on me at all times. I could give him nods and eyebrows to give him the cue now and then when we needed something. We had a good onstage musical rapport. We still do, but he knows everything now. He doesn’t have to look at me anymore.
How was the show in the Ukraine? That was the first real gig you did with him. It must have been nerve-racking.It was really nerve-racking because there was barely any soundcheck. Elton John had gone on before us because he wanted to get out of there and go somewhere else. We were following, which is quite a big call. It was a big, big audience. I don’t know how big, but it stretched right across the square and down the roads to either side with people watching on screens, so it was a big deal and very nerve-racking, but he passed the test. We all passed the test.
The first American tour was a bit of an unknown. The band hadn’t toured in America in any real way since 1982. I imagine promoters were a little uncertain.We had faith, but there was that thing about the audience. “That’s not Freddie. What do they think they are doing?” Plenty of reviewers will say, “If Freddie’s not in Queen, what’s the point of going to see them?” That was kind of the attitude the first time out for a lot of the older fans. But once they saw what he brought to the stage and how much new life he put into this material, he won them over. And look where we are today.
He also brings his own fans to the shows that may not even know much about Queen.The audience was fragmented at first into old Queen fans who came with their arms crossed saying, “What’s this all about?” and the Adam fans who were like “What’s this old band he’s attached himself to?” Then there were some children of Queen fans who grew up listening to their parents records. That really has changed now. We’ve gotten to a point where 90 to 95 percent of the audience that shows up never saw Freddie Mercury perform live with Queen. But they have seen him on the screen and they know the songs because the songs are so much in the musical consciousness of everybody because of the TV commercials and sporting events and whatever, so everyone knows half a dozen Queen songs even if they don’t realize it.
I look out and I see teenagers weeping with joy when “Fat Bottomed Girls” comes on. And then there’s old people that are proud to say, “I saw them in 1975” or whatever. They’re all singing along with the same gusto. It’s crossing genres and generations, which is pretty much what they always did. Queen were never fashionable, so they’re never really unfashionable.
Roger and Brian look so happy during the shows. They had so many years where they didn’t have a way to play these songs in public, and they finally do again. It’s a real validation of their life’s work.It is. It’s the music that really counts. That’s why they are there, but for them it must be quite rewarding to be able to sell out Madison Square Garden and carry on around the world. They keep talking about adding more bits to this as we’re rolling into next year. It’s amazing. They are both in their seventies. I’m not far off. It’s a challenge as well, physically, to do a show like that. We are coming to the end of this run. I think everyone is ready to lay down for a few weeks and take some time off. But we’re looking forward to coming back to New York in September [for the Global Citizen Fest].
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The good side is the movie introduced Queen’s music to a whole new audience. You used to do one night at the Garden. Now it’s two.Yeah! The curve was already on the up from the previous tour. Their marketability and pulling power had been growing and growing as more and more people had been getting the Adam bug and saying, “He’s a good man to be doing this.” But then the movie cracked that wide open. I think they could probably tour for the rest of their lives. This tour could go on forever. It won’t, though. … It’s interesting to look out and see people lustily singing along to every song that was in the movie, and looking blankly at every song that wasn’t.
How has Adam grown as a singer and performer in these nine years he’s been in the band?He’s very much his own man when it comes to performance and he’s managed to walk that fine line between deference to Freddie and the history of the band and presenting his own take on it. He’s not trying to be anybody else. He’s being Adam Lambert singing Queen songs. He always had the chops. He always had the stage presence, but now he’s having fun as well.
What’s the future? Can you see a version of Queen with Adam Lambert after Roger and Brian retire? Can it keep going?Wow! That’s an interesting concept that hadn’t even occurred to me. I don’t know. Wow. You never say never to anything, do you? If the market is there for somebody to perform that music, somebody will turn up and perform that music. In what shape that will take, I couldn’t possibly say. And these guys aren’t done yet. They look around, and when you see the Stones still doing what they’re doing … It used to be “I hope I die before I get old.” It’s not like that anymore, is it? I think they can sit around at home and do nothing or tour the world and have a fabulous time. I know what I’d rather do.