Adam Lambert Calls Freddie Mercury “Mythic God” And Impossible to Replace

Adam Lambert has stated that it’s “impossible” to replace the late Freddie Mercury as the legendary frontman of Queen.

In late 2004, Paul Rodgers joined Brian May and Roger Taylor providing vocals for Queen. They were billed as Queen + Paul Rodgers and together they toured worldwide in 2005 and 2006. Rodgers announced his departure from their collaboration in 2009.

Following the five-year period of Rodgers with Queen, Lambert joined the band in 2011 and was later billed as Queen + Adam Lambert.

In the recent O2 Silver Clef Awards at Grosvenor House in London, Lambert picked up the International Award and said he could never “replace” Mercury. He told Music News:

“Listen, there’s no replacing Freddie Mercury.
“It’s impossible. Freddie Mercury is a mythic rock god.
“Not only did he sing the hell out of those (Queen) songs, he wrote so many of them. Those were his stories in a lot of those songs. And if I didn’t have the recordings of Freddie Mercury, I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am with this music.
“So he’s incredibly inspiring and he definitely gave me all of the ingredients that I needed to even pull it off on stage. So I look at it always as a celebration and a tribute to him.”

Reflecting on Mercury’s long-lasting legacy, Lambert continued:

“I think Freddie’s many things. I think the voice alone, it does something to you when you listen to it.
“He had an incredible voice, and I think that, as his tool, connected him with so many people out there. And then his songwriting — he wrote beautiful, human, emotive music about the human experience, and I think that also connected him with people.
“Then once you got him onstage, you look at old footage of him and he was very free and full of joy, and I think that inspired a lot of people as well, including myself.”

Talking about making new music with Queen, Lambert had previously explained to Hunger Magazine:

“People always ask if we want to record together and I’m not sure it makes total sense because it wouldn’t really be Queen because to me Queen is Freddie (Mercury).
“My favorite thing is collaborating and putting these concerts together and creating on stage – it’s super fulfilling and exiting. To present these ideas to these two gentlemen (Brian May and Roger Taylor) – especially when they like the idea.”

While earlier this year, May insisted that Mercury would have wanted Queen to continue with Lambert. The guitarist told Guitar World:

“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.”

Meanwhile, Queen is set to continue their Queen + Adam Lambert’s Rhapsody Tour in North America that will kick off in Baltimore on October 4.