Adam Lambert has teased his future with Queen, joking that they ‘just kind of keep on going’ after what he thought would be a one-off performance for the MTV Europe Awards in 2011.
With a US tour lined up for this summer though, Lambert was drawn enough to say that he doesn’t think that ‘that’s the end’ for them.
Original Queen members Sir Brian May, 75, and Roger Taylor, 73, first joined forces with Lambert, 41, on American Idol in 2009 when he was a contestant, performing We Are the Champions alongside him and eventual season eight winner Kris Allen.
With previous collaboration Queen + Paul Rodgers ending in 2009, May began considering Lambert as a new frontman for the band – although one that would be featured rather than a straight up replacement for late singer Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991.
Bass player John Deacon, who was the fourth member of the legendary group, retired from playing with Queen in 1997.
In November 2011, Lambert joined the band once again for a special performance at the MTV Awards, where Queen received a Global Icon Award.
Since then, there’s been a mini tour in 2012, and major touring dates across the world every year from 2014 to 2019, before they finally managed to bring The Rhapsody Tour to the UK last summer after multiple pandemic delays (and a UK number one album).
Discussing if there was a possibility of touring the UK again anytime soon with Queen, Lambert told Metro.co.uk at the Cannes Film Festival: ‘Not that I’m necessarily aware of, but I know that it’s not out of the question. I mean, we just kind of keep going, don’t we?
‘Last summer was such a treat, we had a blast. It was a really beautiful tour, and we were very excited to get back on the road in front of the fans. And 10 sold-out shows at the O2 was a big milestone for me, personally. I’m so grateful for the journey that we’ve been on together.
‘I know when I first performed with them, I thought it was probably going to be a one-off and then one thing led to another and it just snowballed and it became this beautiful relationship that we’ve continued over the past 10 or so years. And I’m delighted, I’m so excited to get back on the road in the States.’
Addressing their future, he added: ‘And I don’t think that’s the end. I think there’s probably more where that came from.’
Alongside his work with Queen, Lambert has maintained a busy solo career of music and acting, and his latest project is Mad About the Boy – The Noël Coward Story, a documentary for which he performed the title track, which was also released on his latest album, High Drama.
Mad About the Boy was a popular song playwright and actor Coward penned for 1932 musical revue show Words and Music and has been recorded over the years mainly by female artists including Dinah Washington, Helen Forrest, Cybill Shepherd, Miss Piggy and Sheridan Smith.
Discussing his ‘very organic’ involvement with the project, directed by Barnaby Thompson, Lambert revealed he was asked by Unigram’s Amanda Ghost, ‘and all-powered businesswoman and former songwriter and producer’ to do it.
‘I think their goal was to create a version of the song Mad About the Boy that was a modern interpretation,’ he revealed.
‘I saw Barnaby this afternoon and we were chatting and he said that the exciting thing for him is that the idea that when Noel was coming up, he kept his sexuality a little more private – it was more of a taboo back then – and he thought it would be a really nice statement to do something modern with an artist who is out, who is in a different time where we’re able to talk about that stuff and it’s not necessarily the end of your career.
‘So the statement is made merely just by asking me to do it in some ways and creating a modern version, which I thought was really special.’
Rumours over the years have suggested that Coward wrote the song in particular tribute to a movie star, with candidates for his adoration including actors Douglas Fairbanks Jr or Tyrone Power – but Coward’s recording of the song wasn’t released at the time, likely due to the fact it was addressed to a man (or boy).
Soberingly, that is also an issue Lambert has encountered in his career, too.
‘I remember when I first came out onto the scene and was recording my first album, there were a couple moments where… There was a demo I was doing, and in the demo it said ‘he’ and the people putting it together were like, “Listen, we have no personal problem with it, but we know that if you say ‘he’ in a song, they’re not going to play it on the radio”.
‘And that’s just what it was back then, and that was in 2010! So, imagine what Noel Coward went through in his generation.’
Whataya Want From Me singer Adam also explained that he got ‘a real kick’ out of ‘supporting an celebrating a queer icon, even if they were not necessarily known to be queer at the time’.