Queen Confirm North American Tour With Singer Adam Lambert

Queen have announced a North American tour featuring singer Adam Lambert. After playing a handful of gigs together over the past two years, Brian May and Roger Taylor are now even considering recording a new album with the former American Idol finalist.

“We’ll see what happens on tour,” Taylor told Rolling Stone yesterday. “It would be nice [to make an album] … [but] I think we’re going to make sure we enjoy it first.” May, who has been polishing unreleased Queen songs for a possible new release, said he is “open to anything”. “There’ll be a lot of newness about [the Lambert shows],” he explained. “I think that’s very exciting. It’ll be loud and dangerous and all the things that people used to look for in us.”

May, 66, and Taylor, 64, first discovered Lambert on YouTube, Googling him after they received a tip from one of Taylor’s friends. “I just thought, ‘Wow, what a voice! Those octaves!’” Taylor said. They eventually performed together on American Idol, and resumed the collaboration after the 32-year-old finished the series in second place. Lambert has described Freddie Mercury, Queen’s original singer, as an inspiration. Playing with the band, he said, is “beautiful” and “surreal”. “I think the thing that’s really special is that this is the real deal. This is live … We’re not playing to tracks. This is all live instruments. I’m singing all the vocals … [and] it’s purely organic.”

So far, Queen and Lambert have announced 19 gigs – all in the United States and Canada. But concerts abroad are “possible”, May said. “We might take this a little bit further.” And Lambert is attached enough to the collaboration that he refused to call it a side-project. “This is a side-by-side project,” he said instead. “I’m learning a lot from these two gentlemen. I’m learning from the audience … Something like this is completely inspiring.”

Lambert’s last solo album was 2012’s Trespassing, which debuted at No 16.