"I had to learn so many songs so quickly, and I don’t think I ever really did learn them properly”: Paul Rodgers opens up about his time fronting Queen, and why he decided to leave

As Bad Company get set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame next month, lead singer Paul Rodgers has been discussing his plans for the event and reflecting on his time fronting another even bigger band: Queen.

Rodgers was talking to Rolling Stone: “I’m going to be there for sure, yeah. And I believe Simon (Kirke, drummer) is, too,” he said. When asked if they were going to perform, he replied: “Well, they want us to, and I may. I haven’t decided what songs to sing at this point in time. But it could be Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy.”

The singer is now 75 and still recovering from a series of strokes. And with guitarist Mick Ralphs having passed away earlier this year (original bassist Boz Burrell died in 2006), it could well be that any performance at the Hall Of Fame will be the last time Bad Company play live. Certainly, Rodgers says that he doubts very much whether the band will ever tour again.

He also spoke about his time fronting Queen during the '00s. “It was fun and it was challenging,” he said. “It was like learning a new language for me because I had to learn so many songs so quickly, and I don’t think I ever really did learn them properly. But that’s another story. But it was one of those things where they tried.”

“They hadn’t toured for a long time. They’d done one-off shows. They did one-off shows with Elton John, with George Michael. It was great people, but they didn’t tour together. And with myself, we actually got out on the road. Ostensibly, it was only supposed to be for a couple of shows in Europe for fun, but it turned into four years.”

The group – billed as Queen + Paul Rodgers – recorded one album, 2008’s The Cosmos Rocks, before winding up the collaboration amicably. Rodgers said that it was he who made the decision to quit. “Eventually, I got to the point where I thought, ‘I’m not really the singer for Queen for the rest of my life,’ so I’ve got to get back to my own music. And that’s why I left in the end. But it was an exciting time. We played in places I basically never heard of in Eastern Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people showed up. And they all knew all the songs. It was crazy.”