Brian May calls Adam Lambert a “gift from God”
Queen guitarist Brian May has praised vocalist Adam Lambert, who has performed with the group since 2011, and described him as a “gift from God”.
May was speaking at an event on July 17th at Abbey Road Studios to launch the 40th-anniversary boxset of Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Project. Discussing Lambert’s tenure with the group, the guitarist told Simon Lupton: “Finding Adam was just an extraordinary thing – and we didn’t look for him, but there he was, the gift from God.”
Before joining Queen in 2011, Lambert rose to fame as the runner-up on American Idol. During the show, he first performed with Queen members May and Roger Taylor with the duo assisting him with a version of ‘We Are The Champions’ alongside eventual winner Kris Allen.
“He can do it all,” explained May at the event. “We can throw anything at him, and he can sing it, and he sings it incredibly well.”
This comes after Lambert recently spoke about the pressure of stepping into Freddie Mercury’s shoes, stating the late singer was “impossible to replace”. He also labelled Mercury as “incredibly inspiring, and he definitely gave me all of the ingredients that I needed to even pull it off on stage.”
At Abbey Road, May also noted Lambert’s efforts to immortalise Mercury’s showmanship, saying: “He’s a great showman, he dresses quite well – suitably camp.” He also shared how difficult it was to adjust after Mercury’s death in 1991: “It was very hard to adjust to losing him. Not just personally because he’s like a brother to us, but also, obviously workwise.”
Queen have extensively toured with Lambert since his arrival into the fold, which May revealed has been an easy task because he’s such a “nice guy”. He told Lupton: “The biggest thing is [Lambert] is a nice guy to be with. You can’t be touring with people you don’t like, that’s just hell. You have to tour with people that you like and respect and get on with.”
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