There’s never going to be another (Freddie), and I’m not replacing him. That’s not what I’m doing. I’m trying to keep the memory alive, and remind people how amazing he was, without imitating him. I’m trying to share with the audience how much he inspired me.”
— Adam Lambert, who performed a New Year’s Eve concert with Queen, in an interview with Classic Rock magazine
h/t: Mirror
Clark35
Freddie Mercury was bisexual, a good musician, and unique.
Lambert is gay, and not unique or that good of a musician.
Cam
I wasn’t aware anybody was accusing him of this. Sounds like somebody is trying to generate some publicity. Well more power to him.
@Clark35:
As for Mercury’s “Bisexuality” yeah, shown by all those women he slept with for decades before he died….oh wait, there weren’t any.
Clark35
Actually Cam, he was in a long term partnership with a woman named Mary Austin for decades but they never married, and he did date/sleep with women.
Milk
Seriously I do not understand the butt hurt some of these people get with Adam Lambert touring with the remainder of Queen. Try checking the you tube channels, any time there’s a performance of Adam and the Queen, you get this trolls endlessly bashing Adam comparing him with Freddie Mercury. Like the people who listen to their music do not know or understand the difference between the two performers.Two different generations, two different artists, two different sounding and two different take of the musics. Why stalking the videos if you do not like Adam? Just stick to the classic Queen videos to your heart’s content. Leave those who want to experience the collaboration between Adam and Queen alone for heaven sake!
jjose712
@Milk: That’s pretty normal on youtube. There are people writing nasty comments on some singers videos again and again (if you don’t like an artist you just don’t watch his/her videos all over again unless you have mental problems or you are a profesional troll).
Some people just don’t understand homages, and idol or the voice contestant chose a song because he/she love the origianl artist and automatically is bashed on internet even if the original artist loved the cover.
Classic groups have a lot of fanatics. Sing a song by Nirvana and you will be inmediately bashed.
Queen tour with Adam is an inmense success, and it is such success because Queen is still popular and because Adam has the pipes to perform their songs, in fact Adam has a wider range than Freddie. Most people will find trouble trying to perform some Queen songs live, but that’s not Adam’s case, and he has a sense of shomanship that really fits the group.
And about Adam’s talents, he is one of the best vocalist out there. Maybe with the right material and some support from his new label (not like the old one who simply took profit of his popularity) he will make some impact now. With Sam Smith success radio seems more ready now to accept openly gay singers. Of course Adam is way more polarizing than Sam, but with the right material he could make it.
Anyway, even with low radio support (and zero support from his label) his tour was a success, and his pass on idol was very profitable for him (and not only for the label like in other cases)
Cam
@Clark35: Actually Cam, he was in a long term partnership with a woman named Mary Austin for decades but they never married.
_____________________
No, they dated for a few years in the early 70’s, then he told her about his sexuality and they broke up but remained friends while he then dated a man. Remember, being gay had just been decriminalized in England in 1967, it isn’t as if it was an open place and yet Mercury opened up to Hutton and dated men including his last relationship with a Jim Hutten who he was with for the last 6 years of his life.
If he was bi, there was no reason to leave Austin and date men, and while they were “Friends” for decades, they dated for a short time….you know, kind of like the gay guy in college whose “Girlfriend” becomes his best friend after he comes out to her.
Ronbo
Seriously, what is wrong with the commentors? Are you so very, very thin-skinned that you can’t understand or accept homage? Fuck you. Just fuck you in your sad little piss ant ass. I’d say “eat shit and die”; but, you are already dead on the inside.
Mercury was truly great and he deserves the attention.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Reason Adam gets so much thit from older Queen fans is that many of them refuse to acknowledge that Freddie was actually a queen…….. :p
My ex’s cousin John actually hooked up with Freddie Mecury and unfortunately he too developed AIDS. He had a gallows sense of humor about it to the end and used to say he got it from Freddie from Queen thus he had the “royal” form of AIDS…..
Alan down in Florida
The only ones who have legitimate standing to make judgment about Adam Lambert’s performances with Queen are the surviving members of the band and they seem awfully pleased with him.
Curtispsf
SO many bitchy queens here on Qweerty, sharpening their nails arguing about “this” Queen or “that” Queen, ready to cut each other up. Would it make you old Queens happy if Queen simply played with the hologram of Freddie Mercury instead of the present arrangement with Adam Lambert? Freddie Mercury was “one of a kind” and there will NEVER be another just like him. But..the King is dead..long live the King. I’m NOT saying Lambert is “the” King….but he does have an amazing voice.
So stop living in the past and just accept things the way they are…Old Queen and the young queen together because Adam Lambert is a big gurl.
demented
@Cam: Then why did he once say “I couldn’t fall in love with a man the way I could with a girl?” Or “To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that’s enough for me?” Or that Austin said that she didn’t lose him to “being gay,” but ” if he had been totally heterosexual I think I would eventually have lost him to another woman?”
And considering how he spoke of Mary Austin and the fact that eh left half his fortune to her (and NOT to his long term lover Jim Hutton, who received half a million pounds, which was also what he left his cook and PA) I think it’s rather insulting to reduce her to “the ‘girlfriend’ who becomes a best friend.” So is calling their six year living-together affair “dating for a few years,” when it was roughly as long as his relationship with Hutton.
And she wasn’t his last serious girlfriend either. He also had a passionate affair with Barbara Valentin before Jim Hutton but after Mary Austin, and yes, it was sexual. If everyone already thought he was and he was, why would he have that affair? There was no social pressure by then!
He was probably much much closer to gay than straight (especially in the last few years of his life when he was pretty much exclusively into men), but that doesn’t mean that that wasn’t bisexuality. Honestly, he doesn’t seem to have cared much about labels, since he would deliberately mess with the media by saying that he was gay, that he was bisexual, and that he would have sex with cats. He seems to have just gone after whatever he was interested in, which was mostly men but sometimes women.
If Casanova is called bisexual, then Freddie Mercury should be too.
mals
I appreciate the reasonable and open minded comments of Milk, jjose712, PWWO, Alan CurtisPFS–the others who constantly bash Lambert don’t know much about him or have not seen/heard him perform live. I have and also saw him perform with Queen this summer. An Outstanding Concert in every way. Brian, Roger and the rest of the band are technically brilliant musicians. Lambert soared in his vocals and was charismatic to the point that when Brian introduced him midway to the crowd, I wondered if they would ever stop clapping. Met up with some open minded die hard Queen fans at a bar afterwards and they really appreciated Lambert’s talent. They were quite surprised with the fact that they enjoyed the concert immensely. Brian and Roger chose Lambert, they are selling out venues, thousands are once again enjoying the iconic music of Queen. Sometimes I think those who just want to denounce Lambert think it is fashionable to do so. Well it is pretty close-minded to me and probably the opposite of what Freddie believed in. HE would want new generations to hear the music that he, Brian and Roger created. So how about getting off your high horse and just listen to your memories–Freddie was one of a kind and so is Lambert–he is his own person, too and many of us are enjoying his run with Queen.
Clark35
@Cam: Try reading a biography about him. Freddie was bisexual, and he and Mary Austin’s relationship was not like you claim it was.
Demented wrote more about what the biographies explain.
jwtraveler
Much ado about nothing. Who gives a fuck about Freddie’s relationship with some woman? He was great and no one can replace him. Adam is also terrific in his own way. And they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Either way one fine musician is honoring another. Isn’t that enough?
ScaryRussianHeather
@Cam:
Well you haven’t been even remotely curious or following this gig because it’s the ENTIRE topic of conversation despite Queen’s best efforts to tamp it down.
WITHOUT exception, every single review states “he’s no Freddie” and proceeds to compare either favorably or negatively. Even on Queen’s OWN WEBSITE community forum there are die hard Freddiephiles who have been posting absolutely the most hateful crap you’ve ever read. Plus idiots from Idol who drifted over there just to troll. Muse fans are equally irrational.
Every single interview for the past couple of years? It comes up. It’s absolutely ridiculous how many times they’ve been asked about that comparison and if they are worried that the fans won’t accept Lambert. And if you simply look at the UK press (notoriously vicious) after NYE, they all headlined that he “passed” and earned his spot. “Even though he’s no Freddie Mercury” eyeroll.
One typical moron last year wrote some lunacy like “Lambert looked like a little boy in the shadow of Freddie Mercury and it was obvious that he rushed off stage when they showed a clip of Mercury during the show” (paraphrasing). The NYT guy was particularly arrogant and totally dismissed him AND claimed they had canned backing tracks and vocals and the ONE THING EVERYBODY knows about Queen is they refuse to do that and any magic is solely created by the keyboard player’s Kronos. He even made a video about it and specified how and why he may use it. Meanwhile, Madison Square Garden was so loud with the fans screaming the roof off but he totally ignored that.
Anyway, of COURSE Freddie Mercury was a gay man. DUH, right? If he were BI he would have just stayed WITH HER. Living in unfortunate times where he DID fall in love with Mary Austin, called her his SOUL MATE and moved on…. and even though he was living with a man for the 6 years before his death, he left his entire estate to HER. So you missed that part of his bio. I would say they had a very special relationship. As he was a unique individual himself.
ScaryRussianHeather
@Cam:
LOL BTW. Since Queerty only excerpted an excerpt from Classic Rock Magazine…and you “didn’t know” this was an issue…
HERE is the OPENING statement from Classic Rock on the article. The article that they appeared on the COVER for.
http://classicrock.teamrock.com/features/2014-12-31/classic-rock-206-on-sale-today
“You can’t replace Freddie Mercury. But on the eve of a tour, the royal family’s Brian May and Roger Taylor and crown prince Adam Lambert explain why they’re keeping the band’s legacy alive.
“My songs are like Bic razors,” Freddie Mercury declared in Queen’s early days. “For fun, for modern consumption. You listen to it, like it, discard it. Disposable pop.” But 23 years after his death, his band’s latest album is called Queen Forever. And that band’s two remaining members, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, concede that for them the title is true.
“I understand people who say: ‘There is no Queen without Freddie. Just leave it be,” Taylor admits, “because that’s what we felt, following his death. All three of us said: ‘Right, that’s the end of the band.’ But the band just didn’t seem to die.”
May now believes that trying to lay Queen to rest with its singer was doomed from the start. “Even though both Roger and I were adamant it was over, it never went away.”
Cam
@Clark35: said…. “@Cam: Try reading a biography about him. Freddie was bisexual, and he and Mary Austin’s relationship was not like you claim it was.”
________________________________________________
Please point out where what I said about his an Austin’s relationship was wrong. They dated for a very few years in the early 70’s, broke up when he revealed his sexuality to her, remained the best of friends while he went on to date a string of men. The last of which, Hutton was with him for the last 6 years of his life.
If I am wrong about that, then by all means point out where and feel free to prove it.
Cam
@ScaryRussianHeather:
Sounds like Lambert is getting blasted by the critics, I had never heard that this was a major issue but then again I’m not following the story.
I think you’re going to get this any time somebody tries to take on the role of somebody who was extremely good at what they did. Mercury was pretty magnetic on stage and had a pretty Amazing voice. Lambert can hit the notes in most cases but not in the same style or smoothness that Mercury could. I get that he had some fame because of American Idol, but Queen might have been better off if they had just held auditions and gone with somebody that could get closer to Mercury’s vocal talent.
As for him leaving his house to his ex girlfriend, of course, he said for years that she was his best friend. But remind me of how many opposit sex couples break up and stay best friends.
rikard
it’s a good gig for everyone. Lambert gets to play big venues with Legends (cap L), the old guys FINALLY have someone who can handle the material without saying “remember i’m straight” or being crushed by the ghost of Freddie.
arischer
no worries about anyone thinking adam is trying to replace freddie mercury, AS IF!
adam with his girly demeanor, his glitter, and his screeching vocals doesn’t hold a match to freddie.