QUEEN guitar legend Brian May spoke with Jonathan Wingate from Record Collector recently about a number of topics including their new album, The Cosmos Rocks. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Record Collector: Did you spend a long time debating whether you should rev up the Queen machine again?

May: "We wouldn’t have done it if we hadn’t found Paul (Rodgers). There were a million people that were suggested to us who could sing like Freddie (Mercury), and we just didn’t want any of it. Then I suddenly found myself playing with Paul at the Fender anniversary gig, and there was just chemistry and understanding there . . . a little reminiscent of the way I would interact with Freddie. There was a distinct ‘light-bulb’ moment, and we thought this could really work. I immediately phoned up Roger and said ‘you know who we never thought of playing with? Paul Rodgers.’ Roger we just went, ‘that’s a great idea.‘ We had all been fans of Paul and we loved FREE . . . Freddie perhaps most of all. We actually had the opportunity to try somehting very soon after that, when we were asked to play at the UK Music Hall Of Fame in 2004. Paul was being awarded something as well as us, so it was all sort of set up for us really. We did 'All Right Now', 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions', and the penny dropped for everybody at that point and we all went, ‘My God, this actually works’."

Record Collector: It must be interesting hearing him reinterpreting your old songs?

May: "The great thing for me was hearing Paul interpret something like 'Champions' in a completely different way, and suddenly the song has new meaning and depth, and we realised that this could actually be not just a continuation, but something new ... something worthwhile doing for its own sake."

Record Collector: Do you see this as a potentially ongoing project that could have a life beyond this new album?

May: "I think we do see it like that ... the decision was made a long time ago. People have said, ‘is it a marriage?’ I would say ‘no ... it’s not a marriage, but it’s a damn good affair’ (chuckles). It sure is fun, and for the first time, on this tour, we’ll be going out with new material, which puts a whole different light on things."

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