Thirteen years after their last album, and 17 years after the death of incomparable frontman Freddie Mercury, Queen are looking, once again, like champions of the world. With a new singer — Paul Rodgers, formerly of Bad Company and Free — a new album and a monumental tour covering 20 countries in 11 weeks, the band with the bestselling album in the history of the U.K. is making a dramatic return to the spotlight.

Guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and Rodgers kicked off the tour in September with one of the biggest concerts of all time, an AIDS benefit in front of more than 350,000 people in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (The show will be screened in hundreds of U.S. movie theaters on November 6th.) Billed as Queen + Paul Rodgers, the trio have toured before, in 2005, but this time, there is a new reason to get back onstage: the release of The Cosmos Rocks, Queen's first new album since 1995's Made in Heaven.

In November 2004, May and Taylor performed with Rodgers at a U.K. Music Hall of Fame induction dinner. At the time, May and Taylor were busy overseeing the various productions of the Queen stage musical We Will Rock You, and May was also finishing his doctorate thesis in astronomy. "It was supposed to be just that one night," says Rodgers. "But we came off so buzzed by what we'd done, we all thought we should do some more. There was a certain spark in whatever we played, whether it was my material or Queen material. It seemed the logical next step to see how far we could go with it, and whether it would work with new songs."

Shortly before finishing the album this summer, the trio are gathered for lunch in the garden of Taylor's 13th-century estate — a former priory southwest of London — to discuss the events that led to the creation of The Cosmos Rocks, which was recorded upstairs in this very residence. "Writing together," says Taylor, "was a dive into the dark — really tentative at first." But when Rodgers offered up a song called "Time to Shine," the ice was broken. "It was very suitable for us," says Taylor. "Quite grand and big." Adds May, "That song was the first time we thought, 'Ooh, we have a record here — this actually sounds like us.'"

"Time to Shine" — a centerpiece of The Cosmos Rocks — is big, all right, with a propulsive "Pinball Wizard"-style intro, thumping drums, a snaky solo from May and a hint of Eastern drone in the vocal arrangement. In a small playback room off the studio (where drinks are served in Queen glasses resting on Queen coasters), the group listens to 13 tracks in various states of mix. "Surf's Up...School's Out" opens with May's trademark stack of guitars, giving way to a stop-and-start arrangement featuring an instantly recognizable wall of harmonies, dissonant piano and Rodgers singing, "I've got a criminal urge to twist and shout." ("There's quite a few retro touches on the album," says Taylor, "which I think at our age we're entitled to use with impunity.") More straightforward is "Voodoo," a loose, bluesy groove that was mostly recorded live in one take, after a session spent jamming on "House of the Rising Sun" and other classic tunes.

"I was always blown away by those fabulous orchestral block harmonies that Queen are famous for, and always wondered how they did that," says Rodgers. "Well, now I know — it's all in Brian's head! We'd go out and multitrack all these harmonies, and Roger and I really didn't know what it was going to sound like. And then we go back in the control room and our guys push up the faders and — there it is!"

May notes that Rodgers' contributions were equally important. "We sometimes get carried away on flights of fancy," he says. "It's nice to paint pictures in the studio, but Paul brought us back to a greater awareness of the instinctive side and also back to the blues."

On a shelf above the mixing board, below a Pinocchio clock, are three miniature figurines depicting May, Taylor and Mercury. Conspicuously absent is bassist John Deacon, who has opted out of all band-related activity for more than a decade. On the album, May and Rodgers share bass duties; onstage, the parts are played by Danny Miranda, formerly of Blue �yster Cult, whom they poached from the Las Vegas production of We Will Rock You. "Whenever we tour," says May, "we always put a little feeler out and say, 'Perhaps you might be interested, John.' But he's not."

As for the other missing member, May and Taylor insist that Mercury would be pleased with their choice of frontman. "Freddie was a huge Paul Rodgers fan," says Taylor. "Absolutely adored his voice. He was a different animal, but he would have loved to be able to sing like that."

They point to "We Are the Champions" as a song that might seem impossible to tackle but that has found new power with Rodgers. "Any number of people could come along and imitate Freddie, but it would be pointless," says May. "It's wonderful to hear Paul inhabiting the songs and making them new. I know that's what Freddie would want."

Following the massive Ukraine blowout, the band headed to sold-out dates in enormous soccer stadiums from Moscow to Rio — illustrating the scale at which Queen operate. So it's not like there was the option of a quiet, modest launch for The Cosmos Rocks. "Somebody asked me the other day, 'What's it like singing for Queen?'" says Rodgers. "And I said, 'It's a bit like sitting on the front of a rocket, going twice the speed of sound, without a seat belt.' And it's great."

[From Issue 1065 — November 13, 2008]

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