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

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

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