Queen Return With Paul Rodgers: "Imitating Freddie Would Be Pointless"

Check out this awesome video of Queen with Paul Rodgers performing for more than 350,000 people last week in the Ukraine (they don't come onstage until about four minutes in to the video, so skip ahead). The show, dubbed "Life Must Go On!" raised money and awareness around HIV/AIDS issues in the former Soviet republic, a topic obviously close to the band: "Queen lost its singer many years ago, so we know that this can affect anybody," drummer Roger Taylor told the AP.

Rolling Stone recently caught up with the band as they were prepping the release of their first new material in 14 years (with Rodgers stepping in for Freddie Mercury), October 28th's The Cosmos Rocks. "We could have had any number of people come along and imitate Freddie, but it would be pointless," Brian May says. "Paul's brought us back to a greater awareness of our instinctive side."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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