Vocalist Paul Rodgers, who performed and recorded with Queen from 2004 - 2009 spoke with BBC Radio Scotland about working with the band.

Rodgers: "It sort of made sense at that point in time. I said, 'Sure, let's just do that. Let's do a couple of dates and see how we go.' Well, that couple of dates turned into four years. We toured the world twice, and we made a studio album, so it really got involved. At the end of the day, though, I did think that I was getting too far away from my own kind of music and I wanted to step away from it, but it was a wild and exciting run.

I said to myself, 'Now, how do I do this? Because I don't really wanna be stepping into anybody's shoes. I wanna be myself.' And actually, Brian Johnson from AC/DC, I'd read an interview by him, and when he was gonna join that band, and the first night on stage, the guitar player said to him, 'Hey, don't worry about anything. Just go and be yourself.' I'd read that interview, and I thought, 'Well, that's what I'll do. I'm not gonna try and replace anybody, I'm just gonna be myself.' So what I did was I set out, really, to basically interpret their songs in my way, and that's really how I handled it."

Check out the complete interview here.

Rodgers, best known as the frontman for the bands Free and Bad Company, recently opened up to CBS News about a health crisis that almost robbed him of his ability to sing. The singer and songwriter who has been making music for five decades had kept his struggle a secret — until now.

Several years ago, Rodgers suffered 11 minor strokes and two major strokes, leaving him without the ability to speak.

"I couldn't do anything to be honest," Rodgers said. "I couldn't speak. That was the very strange thing. You know, I'd prepare something in my mind and I'd say it, but that isn't what came out and I'd go, 'What the heck did I just say?'"

His first major stroke was in 2016 and the second, in October 2019, led to a major surgery.

Cynthia Kereluk Rodgers, his wife, called the ordeal "terrifying."

"I was just praying," she said. "All I wanted to be able to do was walk and talk with him again. That's all I asked for."

Read more and watch video at CBSNews.com.

Rodgers released Midnight Rose - his first solo album in nearly 25 years - on September 22 via Sun Records. Order/save the album here.

Midnight Rose is celebration of a storied career and a feel-good, hopeful look towards the future. It features Paul’s quintessential larger-than-life vocals in a whole new chapter of his career.

Tracklisting:

"Coming Home"
"Photo Shooter"
"Midnight Rose"
"Living It Up"
"Dance in the Sun"
"Take Love"
"Highway Robber"
"Melting"

"Take Love":

"Living It Up":