Quotes from Roger Taylor

Rock bands were never newsworthy. In the '60s and '70s, rock bands weren't in the newspapers because they weren't considered mainstream; they wouldn't sell papers.

Hearing loss has not affected my vocal range. I can still pitch perfectly, but without the hearing aids, I don't hear the intricate high parts of the actual spectrum.

Our bassist, Tim Staffell, was at art college with Frederick Bulsara, who changed his name to Freddie Mercury and joined the band on vocals after Tim left in 1970.

I am a little deaf now. Without my hearing aids in, I miss a lot of peripheral sounds. I had tinnitus, too, for a while.

We are just continually surprised and obviously happy that the interest in Queen and Freddie keeps alive. It's a constant source of pleasure for ourselves.

Everybody was on the same page. Nobody has really gone out there on a different musical journey. When we got back together again, we all wanted to do the same kind of music.

One Christmas, when Freddie and I were flatmates in Kensington, we were trying to cook Christmas dinner, but all we had was a packet of bread sauce that you make with water. We used to dream of a can of beans.

Freddie was very much able to ride the neutral wave. We all respected his views because he was such a great songwriter. It was his idea that we share all the credits. It was decided all the songs would be attributed equally to Queen. That immediately got rid of the arguments. That was a fantastic, democratic notion.

We became closer and closer at the end of Freddie's life, and I think we were co-dependent in many ways. We stuck together for an awfully long time, and I think we all felt we needed one another.

What was Freddie like then? Alongside the showman, he was a rather shy introvert. But if the attention was focused on him, he was a natural star, as we all saw after we put Queen together. Week by week, we saw him grow into this character, Freddie Mercury.

I see no end to the possibility and the potential of Adam Lambert. He's a fabulous performer, and I think it would be very interesting to do something with him.

I'm not a musical theatre person, and I never will be, especially after seeing the way it operates. It's so incredibly inefficient. It takes three weeks to effect a change. It can be a lighting change, a script change, a musical change - you have to meet with six different departments, and about a month later, it may happen.

I prefer to stay out of politics, really.

It is everyone's prerogative to retire. But it's like giving up on life as far as I'm concerned.

When hearing aids were first mentioned, I pictured myself as that old geezer at the back of the church with the whistling ear trumpet, but you can't see these Phonak hearing aids, and people don't realise you've got them in.

There are an awful lot of bands out there doing our old act. An awful lot of fake moustaches and underwhelming performances.

I lived a normal life for a number of years. I had kids. I lived up on a farm in Gloucestershire in rural England, and just kind of got back to reality again.

Radio is so heavily programmed; you have to fit into a certain box. So it's harder for anything different to get through.

It took about five years until we were properly over Freddie's passing. You learn to live with it.

Of the Queen tributes, some of them are very funny, and some of them are really not funny at all. The terrible ones are cheesy and pantolike, more about dressing up in a Brian May wig and a Freddie Mercury moustache, and what they're missing out is the fact that the music is quite complicated and actually not easy to perform.

To me, diva means an extraordinary, outrageously theatrical, brilliant performer.

Most theatrical events range in the inaudible. When I went to see 'Mamma Mia,' I thought they were playing it through a megaphone.

My own introduction to music came quite early. My father didn't have much of an education, but he was keen for me to get some qualifications, and I ended up winning a choral scholarship to a cathedral school.

If people are so obsessed with Freddie that they can't bear to see Queen without him, they should stay home and listen to the records.