Queen + Paul Rodgers = Over

Queen + Paul Rodgers

have split up... that is, the two members of Queen who are still touring as the band will no longer do so with Paul Rodgers.

Former Free frontman Rodgers is gearing up for a summer reunion tour with Bad Company, and says the time has come to take a break from his commitments with Queen (Brian May and Roger Taylor).

"At this point we're gonna sit back from this," Rodgers says, rather editorially. "My arrangement with [Queen] was similar to my arrangement with Jimmy [Page] in The Firm in that it was never meant to be a permanent arrangement.

"I think we made a huge success of it, actually," he continued. "We did two world tours and a couple of live recordings, and...made a studio album (2008's 'The Cosmos Rocks') which was pretty historical for [May and Taylor] because they hadn't really gone in the studio with anybody and recorded something like that for a very long time. So it was quite an achievement, I think."

He insisted the split was not acrimonious and that there was a possibilty of future reunions: "It's kind of an open book, really. If they approach me to do something for charity, for instance, or something like that...I'd be very much into doing that, for sure."

Queen + Paul Rodgers formed in late 2004, Rodgers of course assuming vocal duties from Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991.