ROGER TAYLOR
Queen drummer talks downfallby-humour, John Deacon’s lacuna and bald dwarf/cocaine rumours.
In Confidential mood, Queen’s drummer talks lockdown bursts of creativity, outsiderdom and when he nearly formed a band with Mick Ronson and Ian Hunter.
QUEEN STILL mean everything to Roger Taylor. That’s why the Bohemian Rhapsody gong and the statue of Freddie Mercury that previously stood outside London’s Dominion Theatre are on display in his garden in Surrey.
But when the Queen + Adam Lambert Rhapsody European Tour was postponed until 2022, Taylor hatched Outsider,a “mature, late-career statement”, and his first solo long-player in eight years.
Meanwhile, Queen’s 40th anniversary re-release of Greatest Hits hovers around the UK Number 1 spot and 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody has become the highest-grossing musical biopic ever.
“Our ongoing success is a constant source of amazement and delight,” says Taylor down the line from his yacht, cruising in parts unknown.
You’ve described your new solo album as “autumnal and bittersweet”.
Yes, do you think I’ve grown up at last?
(laughs). Sadly, I’m in the autumn of my years, and although I’ve done fun stuff like my version of [Shirley Ellis hit] The Clapping Song, the album reflects that. But I’d like to think people will be surprised – and in a good way.
Protest song Gangsters Are Running This World is self-explanatory, but many of these lyrics are more personal, you putting your house in order… The older you get the quicker the years go, so I’m trying to squeeze in as much as I can.
When I wrote Journey’s End I actually thought, ‘This might be the last song I ever write,’ but obviously I lived to scribble again.
Is the album title Outsider particularly significant?
I’ve always felt slightly excluded, not much of a team-player. At school, I wasn’t interested in the photographic society or playing bloody cricket. All I wanted to do was be in a band. Most musicians are outsiders, I think.
Any update on the new Queen song you reportedly started with Adam Lambert?
Well, Brian suddenly lost interest and I don’t really know why. We started it in Nashville when we were all quite tired. We couldn’t decide on a title and the lyric felt a little too negative for Queen, maybe. But it was pretty damn good, and I hope it comes to light.
Will you, Brian and John Deacon ever sit down for a drink again?
It’s a lovely fairy tale, but to be honest I don’t think so. John’s like a hermit, really. I don’t think he’s quite equipped for that – he’s really fragile. He can’t deal with company or the outside world, so far as I know. I guess he just sits there counting his money.
Have you given your son Rufus [drummer with The Darkness] advice about the biz?
I told him to write songs, not just play drums, because he’s a natural on piano. On drums he’s scarily powerful. I absolutely love The Darkness, but their over-developed sense of humour might be their downfall (laughs).
You were once asked to form a band with Mick Ronson and Ian Hunter…
It was around 1974, I think, after Queen toured with Mott The Hoople. I love Ian – what an attitude. I loved Mick, too, obviously. We had dinner in Wembley and they wanted to form Hunter-Ronson-Taylor, which had a ring to it. My loyalty to Queen meant it was out of the question, but I was very flattered.
What is the most persistent Queen myth?
Probably the one about the bald dwarves and the cocaine. It never happened. We had so many brickbats thrown at us, but nobody ever said that we couldn’t play. If they did, we’d soon prove them wrong.
A sequel to the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic has been mooted…
My feeling is that one biopic’s probably enough. But I’d be daft to rule it out. If someone can come up with a wonderful script that has a glimmer of truth about it, we’ll see. But in a way we’re our own hard act to follow, and we don’t want to risk doing anything that isn’t going to be great. Maybe that’s one of the things that keeps us out of the studio these days.
“One biopic’s probably enough.” ROGER TAYLOR
Tell us something you’ve never told an interviewer before.
I’ll never write my autobiography. If it was full of truths, I think it would be to my detriment (laughs). The truth isn’t always that interesting, anyway…
Roger Taylor’s Outsider (EMI) is out on October 1.