Queen and Adam Lambert announced a 19-date summer tour of North America on Thursday in New York, and now the group are sharing their thoughts on the upcoming trek, which begins June 19 in Chicago.
Queen have previously toured Europe with Lambert, the former American Idol contestant, and played the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas last fall, but the 2014 run will give many fans their first chance to see the band for the first time.
“We were very conscious of that in making this decision,” guitarist Brian May tells Rolling Stone. “This is the closest that you'll ever get to see Queen as it was in our golden days, but it's not a reproduction. It's not an imitation. We're here live and real and we have a great singer. They'll be a lot of newness about this. I think that's very exciting. It'll be loud and dangerous and all the things that people used to look for in us.”
“I think the thing that's really special is that this is the real deal. This is live,” adds Lambert. “In today's music world, you go to a concert and you're getting a lot of playbacks. There's click tracks. It is what it is. I'm not hating on it. But this is the real deal. This is pure. We're not playing to a click. We're not playing to tracks. This is all live instruments. I'm singing all the vocals with these guys on vocals. It's purely organic. I think in today's day and age, it's very exciting for an audience to see something that has that much heart.”
Things have come full circle for Lambert, who auditioned for American Idol five years ago by singing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You."
Asked when they first saw Adam perform, drummer Roger Taylor explains: “A musician friend of mine in America was like, ‘You've gotta check out this guy on Idol.’ So we Googled [him]. His voice was phenomenal. I was just like, ‘Wow.’ I said [he]had this sort of slight Elvis look going on. I just thought, ‘Wow, what a voice! Those octaves!’ That was my first impression. It was just like anybody else hearing about someone with an extraordinary talent.”
“When you see Adam, you see a performer,” adds May. “He's performing from his heart. He's interpreting the song. I never had any question that he's the real thing. It's a rare thing to find someone with that much talent and the instrument to put it forward.”
Tickets for the Queen + Adam Lambert tour will go on sale beginning Friday, March 14 through the Live Nation mobile app and at Livenation.com.
American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Monday, March 10 at 10am local time in the USA and Tuesday March 11th at 10am local time in Canada.
For a list of tour dates, click here.
See also:
Queen and Adam Lambert announce North American tour
Queen and Adam Lambert to make announcement next week
Queen planning US tour with Adam Lambert
Queen’s Greatest Hits becomes first album to sell 6 million in UK
Search Queen at hennemusic
