Queen guitarist Brian May has spoken about the possibility of the band recording an album with Adam Lambert, and admitted that sections of his band's fan-base will never wish to hear a Queen album without Freddie Mercury.
"It could be Jesus Christ on it, but they'd still want Freddie, the guitarist acknowledges. "And I don't blame people for that."
May discusses the topic in an extensive new interview with Total Guitar.
"We have been in the studio," says May. "We did knock a few ideas around in the middle of one of those [Queen + Adam Lambert ] tours. But it just never quite reached the place where we felt it was going to be right. So we haven't pursued it so far. That's all I can tell you. So I really don't know.
"But I think there's a bit of a barrier there," the guitarist admitted. "I think if people see Queen on a record label, they still want it to be Freddie singing. It could be Jesus Christ on it, but they'd still want Freddie, and I don't blame people for that.
"There are people on Instagram who get annoyed with me: 'Why are you still carrying on without Freddie?' And I go, 'Don't tell me what to do. I do what I feel that I should be doing.' There are people who feel like we shouldn't even be going on stage without Freddie. But I think that would have been very sad, and it's not what Freddie would have wanted either. He would have wanted us to continue developing. And of course, because we are continuing and developing, it keeps that legacy alive.
"You know, I often have this conversation with Freddie's sister, Kash. She gets those questions as well: 'Why are they doing this without Freddie?' And she completely gets what we're doing. She says, 'This is what Freddie would have wanted. He would not want have wanted his songs or the band's songs to become museum pieces. He would have wanted them to live.' And that's what we're doing. We make the Queen legacy live. Absolutely."
"The last tour we did was fantastic," May adds. "Probably the biggest arena tour we’ve ever done, and the most exciting in terms of all the shows being sold out and the energy in those audiences. The thing is, people want live music. They need live music. And we’re happy to go on supplying it as long as we can. As long as I’m alive, I’ll be there!"
You can read the full interview here.
