Original subtitles

[cheering and applause]

[audience] ♪ Love of my life You've hurt me ♪

♪ Broken my heart and now you leave me ♪

♪ Love of my life, can't you see? ♪

♪ Bring it back... ♪

[Freddie Mercury] Through anything, we will just carry on.

It's a survival instinct that I think the whole group has.

I mean, if I suddenly left, they'd just replace me, you know.

Not easy to replace me, huh?

[cheering and applause]

[Simon] Whoever was going to fill those shoes

arguably were the toughest shoes possibly in the world to fill.

[tech] Go, house lights. Go, house lights.

[man] Okay, let's do it! Have a good one.

[woman] Justine to Andy, the band are walking.

[man] Band are walking. Band are walking.

[cheering]

[Roger Taylor] It's just pure chance that we came by Adam Lambert.

[Brian May] Suddenly you think we could do the old arenas we used to do

and we now have somebody who can act as a focus and a channel.

[man] For them to have found a way to do it without Freddie...

it seems like something super human,

but it was right there just as riveting as it ever was.

[music: "We Will Rock You"]

♪ Buddy, you're a boy Make a big noise playing in the street ♪

♪ Gonna be a big man someday You got mud on your face ♪

♪ You big disgrace ♪

♪ Kicking your can all over the place Singing we will ♪

♪ We will rock you... ♪

Listen, we made a film about a gay man, an immigrant,

who lived his life just unapologetically himself.

We're longing for stories like this.

There is just a pure majesty to their music

that hits you right at your core

and it means so much to each person in the most unique way.

[man] There's no other band like them. They're the soundtrack to my life.

I think this day and age, they're such an important band to listen to.

I still think they're the best rock 'n' roll band of all time.

I don't think there's a better band.

[cheering and applause]

They're up there as one of the greatest bands in the world.

♪ She keeps a Moet et Chandon In her pretty cabinet ♪

♪ "Let them eat cake," she says Just like Marie Antoinette... ♪

Queen covered more ground than anyone. They just did.

♪ I want it all ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah... ♪

They can play hard rock.

♪ I want it all ♪

♪ And I want it now... ♪

They can play weird opera songs.

♪ Thunderbolts of lightning Very, very frightening... ♪

They can do gospel.

♪ Can anybody find me Somebody to love... ♪

They can do sort of disco funk songs.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, sing it! ♪

♪ Another one bites the dust ♪

Sing out!

[Lyndsey] In the '80s, Queen were the hottest ticket in town.

The peak was "Another One Bites The Dust", which was their biggest hit in America.

♪ Hey, he's gonna get you too ♪

♪ Another one bites the dust ♪

Live, they're just unbeatable.

[cheering and applause]

I would say the proof was Live Aid.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch Live Aid.

We were not leaving the room.

It was the youth culture event of the 1980s.

I think there are only so few that knew how to play to an audience of millions

and, in that moment, billions.

On that day in Wembley in '85,

everyone got to see what they could do collectively.

♪ Keep on fighting till the end ♪

♪ We are the champions ♪

♪ We are the champions ♪

♪ No time for losers ♪

♪ 'Cause we are the champions ♪

♪ We are the champions, my friend... ♪

You never hear anybody say: "Gee, wouldn't it be great if Queen did a club?"

No!

You would miss that ensemble feeling

that you have, being part of this living force.

♪ No time for losers ♪

♪ We are the champions... ♪

[Hawkins] You have to remember one thing about Queen.

They were always swinging for a home run every time.

♪ Of the world ♪

That was probably one of the all-time great performances ever, I would say.

It was quite unbelievable.

I mean, they kicked everyone's ass. They kicked Led Zeppelin's ass.

They kicked Phil Collins' ass. Sorry, Phil, I love you.

They kicked The Who's ass. Sorry. Love The Who.

They kicked everyone's ass.

♪ Ey-oh! ♪

[audience] ♪ Ey-oh! ♪

♪ Ey-oh! ♪

[audience] ♪ Ey-oh! ♪

♪ Ey-ey-ey-ey-oh! ♪

That was really one of the most impressive shows of the command

that a lead vocalist can have on an audience.

♪ Ey-oh! ♪

[audience] ♪ Ey... ♪

They're a great fucking band, period.

♪ Dee-do, dee-do, dee-do Dee-do, dee-do, day-do ♪

[audience] ♪ Dee-do, dee-do, dee-do Dee-do, dee-do, day-do ♪

-♪ Day-doh, day-doh ♪ -♪ Day-doh, day-doh ♪

-All right! -All right!

[cheering and applause]

[Joe] After Live Aid, there was nothing going to stop 'em.

The world was theirs and they really could have gone anywhere with it,

had it not been for the fact that it kind of coincided with Fred's illness.

[newsreader 1] Freddie Mercury died last night of AIDS.

There have been tributes to his talent and his courage

from friends and from fans.

[newsreader 2] He only admitted publicly that he had AIDS the day before he died,

when he also appealed to his fans to help combat the disease.

[Malek] I can only imagine how difficult it was for Freddie,

in a time where having AIDS was looked at as something almost evil.

[Elliott] When you lose one of your heroes,

somebody of such magnitude as Fred, it rips you to the core.

It was heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.

[Parker] I remember when Freddie died, a lot of people being like:

"You're not going to be able to overcome this tragedy.

You're not going to be able to recapture any of the old magic.

You're not going to find someone who can front a band like Queen."

The idea that Queen could have continued without Freddie Mercury?

No way. No way. You'd say, knee-jerk, no way.

And yet here we are.

[music: "One Vision"]

[Brian May] It wasn't until this young man appeared...

I call him, the gift from God, Adam.

We didn't ask for him. We didn't look for him.

We didn't have a recipe book or whatever, with bullet points.

He just turned up and he could do everything.

♪ One man ♪

♪ One goal ♪

♪ One mission ♪

♪ One heart ♪

♪ One soul ♪

♪ Just one solution ♪

♪ One flash of light, yeah... ♪

I can't imagine what it would be like to go through what they went through

and lose a band member, but his story needed to carry on

and they needed to carry on Queen to honor Freddie.

♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪

♪ Give me one vision ♪

♪ No wrong ♪

♪ No right ♪

♪ I'm gonna tell you There's no black and no white ♪

♪ No blood ♪

♪ No stain ♪

♪ All we need is one worldwide vision ♪

♪ One flesh, one bone, one true religion ♪

♪ One voice, one hope, one real decision ♪

♪ Give me one night! Give me one hope ♪

♪ Just give me ♪

♪ One man, one day, one night, hey, hey ♪

♪ Just give me, give me Give me fried chicken ♪

[Parker] The fact that Queen are having such a whole new resurgence

because of both Adam and the movie,

it's like... it's one of the greatest comeback stories of all time.

[cheering]

Every time I walk to the stage with these guys, I have to pinch myself.

I'm like: "Oh, my God, is this real life?

Or is it just fantasy?"

[cheering]

The biggest trip that I was going through was the fact that I knew

that by singing these songs as the lead singer in this moment

that I was going to inevitably be compared to Freddie.

I know what some of you out there are probably thinking...

A few of you are probably like...

[snorts] "He's no Freddie Mercury, though."

[laughter and cheering]

No shit.

[laughter]

People know the songs because of the recordings.

I learned the songs because of the recordings.

Freddie's unbelievable.

His voice was one in a million... zillion, trillion.

There will only be, for all of time,

one rock god, Freddie Mercury.

I'm filling in for this god

and I'm not him and I knew that I wasn't Freddie.

Thank you for giving me a chance. Thank you.

[Roger] We're not trying to recreate our dear Freddie.

So, if people do think that, I have no patience with them.

Please don't come.

But if you want to just enjoy our music done really well,

you know, please do come.

We want our music to be alive and dangerous and still open to change.

You know, Freddie particularly would hate to have things

kind of reproduced the way they were.

There are a lot of Fred impersonators around,

and they put on this fake mustache, or something, and a yellow jacket,

and it's... well, good luck, you know. Good luck on the cruise ship.

♪ Tonight I'm gonna have myself ♪

♪ A real good time ♪

♪ I feel alive... ♪

[Roger] Comparisons with Freddie are wasting time.

He's had to cope with it because people are so fucking unimaginative.

I mean, you know, Fred's dead and he's not going to be there,

so if you come to see us, you're not going to see him.

[Jonas] He does it in his own way and I think that's what's really amazing.

You're not going to go see a cover band. You're seeing Queen.

♪ So, don't stop me now ♪

♪ Don't stop me ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm having a good time Having a good time ♪

♪ I'm a shooting star Leaping through the sky like a tiger ♪

♪ Defying the laws of gravity ♪

♪ I'm a racing car passing by Like Lady Godiva ♪

♪ I'm gonna go, go, go There's no stopping me ♪

♪ I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah ♪

♪ Two hundred degrees That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit ♪

♪ I'm traveling Across the speed of light ♪

♪ I want to make a supersonic man Out of you... ♪

Once I got over my own head trip about:

"Are they going to compare me to Freddie? Am I good enough?"

I realized this is this once-in-a-lifetime experience

to sort of be a vessel and just perform.

♪ Don't stop me now ♪

♪ Don't stop me 'Cause I'm having a good time ♪

♪ I don't want to stop at all... ♪

[cheering]

[Adam] When these early performances were so well received,

it was a sense of victory, because the stakes were so high for me.

♪ La, la, la, la, la... ♪

This is all a bonus. We could have all disappeared

and... gone back to different kinds of jobs, you know,

if it weren't for the fact that we had Adam.

It's astonishing to me to look back on it and realize we thought it was the end

and in a sense it was.

[cheering]

We are here tonight to celebrate

the life and work and dreams of one Freddie Mercury.

[cheering]

We're going to give him the biggest send-off in history!

[cheering]

We, over a long period, accustomed ourselves to the idea

that we were going to do a tribute to Freddie and it did take a while.

It was Roger who pressed the button and said:

"We're ringing these people up to see if they come."

Okay, today's for Freddie. It's for you.

It's to tell everybody round the world that AIDS affects us all.

So, we were ringing up a lot of our heroes.

So, everybody who was kind of in the same river as Freddie.

So suddenly we're performing with David Bowie and Robert Plant.

You look around: "Who is this?" Tony Iommi's beside me.

He's a lifelong friend, you know. The most amazing artists of our lives.

♪ You're such a dirty louse Go get out of my house ♪

♪ That's all I ever get from you ♪

♪ Oh, your family ties... ♪

I was the first person to sing with Queen after Fred died.

♪ But I don't give a light I'm gonna make out all right... ♪

Doing it on stage in front of 80,000 people and a billion people on TV.

Holy shit.

♪ Tie your mother down Tie your mother down... ♪

You'd never think it'd be possible to get one person to stand in Fred's shoes,

because there's no way I could have done anything other than, say, the rock stuff.

With the Freddie Mercury Tribute show, you needed 20 characters

to even come close to pulling on his coattails.

[Brian] Finding one person who could do everything

that Freddie could do would've been pretty much impossible.

♪ Are you ready? ♪

The whole range of Queen songs is considerable.

♪ All we hear is... ♪

It's a very, very colorful catalog

with all kinds of different sort of vocal approaches needed.

♪ God knows ♪

♪ God knows I want to break free... ♪

[Roger] It did bring home the fact

that Freddie was so incredibly talented on so many levels

and how hard it was for anybody to cover as much ground as Freddie covered.

♪ Can anybody find me Somebody to love... ♪

I don't think anyone thought they'd be the next Freddie Mercury. It ain't easy, man.

♪ Any way the wind blows ♪

We get to the end. It's done...

and Joe Elliott was next to me, as we walked off,

and he just grabbed my arm and he said: "Brian, look at that."

I said: "You need to stand here and look at this,

because you will never, ever see this again.

If this is the end, what a way to go."

And for the first time I looked out and I thought: "Ah, how amazing.

This amount of love got poured out to our friend."

Good night, Freddie. We love you.

[Roger] We felt that would be probably the last time

we would play our songs together.

It was a very strange era, a very strange period for us,

'cause we'd lost Fred.

We were a little bit sort of concussed by the whole thing.

I did leave Wembley feeling: "That's it, now I've seen the last one."

'Cause you couldn't imagine there being anything else. What else could there be?

Everyone who was around us, we just all cried. It was extremely emotional.

It was the end of part of my life.

When Freddie died, Queen died.

And I thought the interest has got to dwindle.

When something's not there, not touring, not recording, physically, it will die.

[man] Do you think you're going to get to heaven?

-No, I don't want to. -You don't want to?

No, hell's much better.

Look at the interesting people that you're going to meet down there.

I don't think really about: "My God, when I'm dead, are they going to remember me?"

I don't really think about it. It's up to them.

When I'm dead, who cares? I don't.

♪ Love of my life, don't leave me ♪

♪ You've stolen my love You now desert me ♪

[audience] ♪ Love of my life Can't you see? ♪

♪ Bring it back, bring it back... ♪

[Roger] With Freddie's death, we just thought it was all over, you know.

We hadn't planned on ever playing again.

[Brian] We talked about it. If one of us goes, we should just stop.

So, yeah, we did stop for a very long time.

We didn't have the desire to go on without Freddie.

[cheering]

♪ Oh, hurry back, hurry back ♪

♪ Don't take it away from me ♪

♪ Because you don't know ♪

♪ What it means to me ♪

[audience] ♪ Love of my life ♪

♪ Love of my life ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

[cheering and applause]

[fans chanting]

[Brian] I missed Freddie dreadfully.

I knew it was coming, but it was still awful.

[woman] The most important thing in your life?

The most important thing in my life?

Love.

That's it.

And something to everyone who would like to be Brian May?

Oh, don't try and be me whatever you do. That's what I would say.

Don't follow me, mate, 'cause it's not easy.

It was a grieving process, I think.

We don't want to talk about Queen, or be Queen.

We've done that. We want to be ourselves now.

Now we go off and do our separate things, which perhaps we've all been dreaming of.

Roger has always done lots of solo projects,

so he went straight back into that.

I hadn't done a lot of solo stuff, but I went out and sang.

♪ I don't believe in ♪

♪ Being Queen anymore ♪

♪ I just believe in me ♪

After Freddie died, it took me a year

to even want to start about thinking of doing things.

I just thought, oh, just settle down and try and, you know,

like, live with the present now and see how you feel.

John sort of freaked out and decided he really couldn't deal

with being in the music business anymore, you know.

So it was an odd period that.

Really the band was over.

[music: "Seaside Rendezvous"]

♪ Seaside ♪

♪ Whenever you stroll along with me ♪

♪ I'm merely contemplating What you feel inside... ♪

We were living in San Diego. It was a nice place to raise kids.

When Adam was younger, he didn't quite fit in,

didn't like sports very much.

We tried soccer, we tried tee-ball and it just wasn't his thing.

And he would do a lot of acting out, fantasy things.

He would ask me to film him and take pictures

while he was dancing or singing,

and we thought there's got to be another outlet.

[Adam] They put me in a theater group that rehearsed on the weekends.

It was a big children's theater and I remember the first Saturday I went,

I was instantly, like: "I've found my people."

It's exciting to be in children's theater 'cause you just get...

I mean, it's just really exciting going out on stage

in front of a lot of people and performing.

We ended up taking him for voice lessons and he got on stage one day and sang

and we had absolutely no idea that he had that voice.

It was in Fiddler on the Roof.

I think into my teenage years, it started becoming clear

that I was getting attention for it more than the other kids, which I loved.

And as a strange kid who was kind of ashamed of his body and in the closet

and a whole list of other insecurities,

having something that I was good at and that got me a lot of attention

became sort of medicine for me, in a way.

Being just a human on this earth, I encountered Queen.

I definitely had heard songs of theirs around.

But the first time I really asked: "Who is this band?"

was after seeing Wayne's World.

[Eber] This is actually the theater we used to come to fairly regularly.

It's only a few miles from our house I'm pretty sure we saw Wayne's World here.

♪ Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me ♪

♪ For me, for me... ♪

It was so much fun, that scene,

and I left the movie theater with my father and my little brother.

I asked my dad: "What song was that?" He was like: "That's Queen."

When we got home that night, he showed me some albums that he had of Queen.

[Eber] There was always music in the house.

Both Leila and I, we have a pretty big record collection

and he would go into the record collection every once and a while

and pull out things that caught his eye, you know,

on the David Bowie albums, the Queen albums,

you know, some of the Led Zeppelin albums, so he would just explore.

I really fell in love with rock 'n' roll and everything that was the '70s

and that's when I really got to dive into Queen and their catalog.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Come tonight! Come to the... ♪

[Leila] Adam would watch Freddie Mercury. He would watch videos.

He would just try to get a feel for how he performed and what he did on stage.

[Adam] I was just delighted to see this guy running around stage

in these strange, outlandish outfits, you know,

his harlequin jumpsuit, or his PVC leather daddy look,

or his little itty-bitty white shorts and no shoes.

For me, seeing somebody that got on stage, which is a place that I knew very well,

and acted the way he did and sang and performed the way he did,

I was instantly inspired and I felt like there was some sort of kinship.

I was just, like, this guy was fearless.

It definitely inspired me.

I wasn't there yet, though. I was fearful at that point in my life.

Erm, you know, I was auditioning, always terrified:

"God, what will they think of me? Will they like me?

Am I good enough? I don't know." Very doubtful.

He did things on and off.

He got a gig doing the musical Hair in Europe and did the cruise ship

and so he was starting to make a living as a singer.

That was the path that I was on that I thought I would probably stay on.

I was in California, not New York,

and I kept kind of saying: "I'll move to New York soon."

I was terrified, actually.

I knew that I would have been a very, very small fish in a big pond.

I didn't feel like I was ready yet.

[music: "We Will Rock You"]

[Gambaccini] I've lived long enough to see gigantic stars fade into nothingness.

It is possible to fade.

So, the crucial decision was when Jim Beach, their manager, he said to me:

"Queen are going to be a current band. They're not going to be an oldies group."

[Malek] Some of Freddie's last words were,

"Do what you want. Just never make me boring."

It took us five years to get over the shock of losing Freddie,

but Brian and I were still close and still friends

and still running what you'd call the brand,

the business of a band like Queen.

[Brian] The musical We Will Rock You softened the blow, in a sense,

'cause you have something you can pour your creativity in.

It was a chance to take our music to a different place

and develop it with new artists,

young artists who had fantastic voices and fantastic ability.

I loved the whole We Will Rock You thing.

I think Roger had misgivings about the whole thing.

I hate the medium of musical theater. I absolutely hate it.

For the first two years when it was on at the Dominion,

I was in there almost every night,

just learning and tweaking and trying things out,

and it was like having Queen there, I suppose, you know, outside ourselves.

It was great. It filled the gap.

That musical reignited the Queen flame

and people started talking about Queen.

But it's not being a performer on stage. Now, you do miss that.

If you've been a performer all your life, you do.

And those moments when I would come up through the trap door

in We Will Rock You in clouds of smoke

and be the guitar hero with all the white spotlights...

[plays "Bohemian Rhapsody" melody]

Suddenly I was part of this lovely baby that we had created,

I was part of the creation. I was in there.

I loved doing that. It was such a fulfilling moment.

[cheering and applause]

[Jenkins] When Brian and Roger played at the musical, the place erupted.

People wanted to see them live.

[Gambaccini] You know the audience is there,

therefore it's just a question of coming to peace with oneself.

How do we reengage with this existing audience?

Totally different challenge from when they were a new group.

How do we grow an audience?

This is, how do you engage with the existing audience?

To benefit Nelson Mandela's AIDS charities,

they organized a huge concert in Cape Town.

[Brian] We answered the call to Madiba.

Nelson Mandela is suddenly on the phone saying: "Can you rescue my concert?"

And we produced it for him and we went out there

and we really didn't imagine that the byproduct

would be that we would be reengaging with an audience.

[cheering]

[Brian] Something to tell your grandchildren, I think.

To be in the presence of such greatness and to be a part of this whole venture,

I just feel incredibly privileged.

♪ We are the champions, my friends... ♪

[Gambaccini] A moment like that Cape Town episode can't help but remind you...

this is the biggest audience participation act of all time.

[Freddie] Everybody wants to play to the biggest audiences ever.

I want to play to as many people as I can and the more the merrier.

'Cause my music is for everybody. Music is limitless.

Queen have this intimate relationship

with tens of thousands of people at one time.

You can't turn your back on it without feeling guilty.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

[Brian] It dawned on me that I was being rather silly, you know, in denying Queen,

because we'd spent a major portion of our lives

building up this edifice and this catalog

and this whole universe which is Queen, the content of the lyrics,

content of the music and the spirit that goes with it.

Why would I be denying it?

[cheering and applause]

If I didn't do this, I don't have anything to do, you know.

I can't cook. I'm not very good at being a housewife.

[interviewer laughs]

I always held out hope, because... Brian and Roger,

you don't want to keep that Lamborghini in the garage, you know.

You got to drive that fucking car every once in a while.

So I was hoping that they would find someone.

We've done odd gigs, you know, as Queen, in a sense,

you know, using guest artists. It was just...

I remember saying not many months ago, when somebody said:

"Can you do a Queen tour? Can you call it Queen?"

And I said: "Well, no, not really, not barring a miracle."

If there's a miracle that we find the right person to sing, then yes.

♪ Lately I've been hard to reach ♪

♪ I've been too long... ♪

[Brian] Even though we were proud of what we'd done,

we didn't want to go out there and be Queen again without Freddie.

And it happened almost by accident

at an award show I played with Paul Rodgers, who was a hero of ours,

and I remember coming off stage, and Paul's lady said:

"You guys seem to have a great chemistry. All you need is a drummer."

And I went: "Well, I think I know a drummer."

[laughs]

[Roger] Brian and I find that we still have the magic on stage,

so, it's great to be doing this with a different singer,

but the magic of Queen is absolutely still there.

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

[music: "Tie Your Mother Down"]

♪ Get your party gown Let your pigtail down ♪

♪ Get your heart beating, baby ♪

♪ I got my timing right Got my act all tight ♪

♪ It's got to be tonight My little school babe ♪

♪ Your mama says you don't And your daddy says you won't ♪

♪ And I'm boiling up inside ♪

♪ Ain't no way I'm gonna lose out this time ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Tie your mother down Tie your mother down ♪

♪ Lock your daddy out the door I don't need him nosing around ♪

♪ Tie your mother down Tie your mother down ♪

♪ Give me all your love tonight... ♪

In retrospect, I think perhaps Queen were maybe thinking:

"We're not going to ever find someone who can be the next Freddie,

so let's go the opposite direction and just do something completely different

with someone who's just not...

doesn't sound like Freddie, doesn't look like Freddie, is just his own thing."

He enjoyed playing a lot of the Queen stuff,

not all of it suited him, but it was a good combination for a while.

We ended up going all around the world a couple of times with Paul.

I would still go to shows and think: "Well, we used to do that.

We used to play in arenas or whatever."

Suddenly, out of the blue, we are in the same arena again

and how incredible that we can still do that,

people still want to come and fill those arenas

and we can still rock the hell out of 'em.

♪ Until one day they call your name ♪

♪ You know it's time For the hammer to fall... ♪

He was his own man and he belonged in the sort of blues, soul feel,

which there is no better.

Our stuff is a little bit too eclectic, probably,

so. I think that's why that came to an end.

After that, I figured that was it. I really thought there's no way that...

You can't replace Freddie Mercury.

You can't replace an icon. You just can't.

And, again, I think Roger and I thought: "Okay, that's it, you know?

We've done that, we've done this and there is nobody out there."

We don't want to employ someone to copy Freddie.

Why would we do that? It just wouldn't make sense.

[Roger] There was no sort of thought of flogging a dead horse,

you know, keeping it all going.

In fact, the horse wasn't actually dead, but it was still a runner in some ways.

First of all, you've got to find a charisma.

Then you've got to find someone with a vocal range.

'Cause Freddie's vocal range was off the chart.

I mean, he could sing classical, rock, pop.

Uh, so, there weren't many of those people who ticked all those boxes.

-[man] Yeah. -[woman] Hi.

-[man] Don't be scared. -I'm not scared.

[Adam] At that point, I had said goodbye to a lot of my fear

and found who I was as a performer, truly.

Are you our next Idol?

-I think so. -Really?

-He's been in the cast of Wicked. -For the past year and a half.

He actually called me and he said: "I'm going to quit my job at Wicked."

I'm like: "You're going to quit your job at Wicked? That's a great job!"

I'm like: "Okay, well, how much is American Idol going to pay?"

He's like: "They don't pay." I'm like: "I can see where this is going."

-What are you going to sing for us? -"Bohemian Rhapsody". So, rock.

-Oh, it's his favorite. -Is that cool? Do you like that? Okay.

It just said everything about Adam,

which was, yeah, let's make life even harder for yourself

and sing probably the biggest rock track of all time.

♪ Mama, just killed a man ♪

♪ Put a gun against his head ♪

♪ Pulled my trigger, now he's dead ♪

♪ Mama, life has just begun ♪

♪ But now I've gone ♪

-♪ And thrown it all away ♪ -[Cowell] Okay.

-Okay, you're a really good singer. -Thank you.

I think you're one of the most diverse singers we've heard.

-Thank you. -I'm going to give you my opinion.

I think you are theatrical.

I wasn't in a great mood that day.

Is he a good singer, though?

We'd started early. It was awful. So, I wasn't jumping out of my chair.

If he's a good singer, do we put him through at this point?

That'd be up to you. We each have our own individual votes.

But he's one of my favorite contestants ever.

Theatrical, yes, but you've got a good voice

and right now that's what we're looking at.

-Okay, well, you've got three yeses. -You have four yeses. You're brilliant.

I remember watching his audition when he sang "Bohemian Rhapsody"...

and the coaches trying to decide whether or not they want him on the show.

I'm like: "This guy needs a record deal. What are you doing?"

It was only when we got to the live shows

where we all started to suddenly see this star emerge.

There were a few times on the show where he had what I call a moment.

It's a moment that will change your career and he did that more than once.

♪ Stars when you shine ♪

♪ You know how I feel ♪

♪ Scent of the pine ♪

♪ You know how I feel ♪

♪ Oh, freedom is mine ♪

♪ And you know how I feel ♪

♪ It's a new dawn It's a new day, it's a new life ♪

♪ Oh, for me ♪

♪ For me ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah... ♪

I thought: "This guy is obviously the most talented of this group

and will go the farthest, but he's not going to win."

The reason he's not going to win is 'cause he's obviously gay.

♪ Ah... ♪

It was the Myspace era and a lot of the TMZ type blogs

had uncovered a lot of old photos of Adam Lambert kissing his then boyfriend

and acted like it was some big scandal.

So he was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly

that said something like: "Adam Lambert is probably gay."

[Adam] By the time I got to Idol, I was 27

and I had been going through most of my 20s in LA

very openly and proudly gay.

So I figured: "Oh, it's already out of the bag. Yeah, that's me.

Like, they know, I know, yeah."

I never said the words: "I am gay."

And I didn't really realize that I had to make that type of literal statement.

Adam Lambert wanted the focus to be on him as a singer,

not on any aspect of his personal life,

and so he chose not to publicly address these photographs

and so that swirl of intrigue, I guess, continued along with him

as he performed phenomenally week after week on American Idol

and became one of the most popular contestants on that show ever.

[music: "Whole Lotta Love"]

[Parker] Towards the end of American Idol Season Eight,

Adam Lambert did "Whole Lotta Love".

♪ You need cooling, baby ♪

[Parker] Led Zeppelin had never cleared a song

for American Idol and I imagine that Led Zeppelin said:

"Well, yeah, this guy's not going to mess up our song."

♪ Way down inside, honey, you need ♪

♪ I'm gonna give you my love ♪

♪ I'm gonna give you my love ♪

♪ Oh! Want a whole lotta love... ♪

I wrote at that time that it was the best American Idol performance of all time.

Adam Lambert owned that stage that night.

♪ You've been learning ♪

♪ And, baby, I been learning ♪

♪ All those good times Baby, baby, baby, I've been misusing ♪

♪ Way, way down inside Honey, you need... ♪

[Roger] It was really by pure chance that we ran into Adam.

It was Spike, our keyboard player,

who saw Adam singing "Whole Lotta Love" on American Idol.

Adam was on TV and I immediately got a chill from what I was hearing.

♪ Keep it cooling, baby ♪

♪ Keep it cooling, baby ♪

I thought: "Wow, this kid's special and he's got something."

He had a great set of pipes and I could see that he had charisma

and he looked fantastic.

♪ Oh ♪

When he got to the end, when he sings "Woman you need love",

which is the big moment, the money shot of the song,

and he just sang it effortlessly.

♪ Woman ♪

♪ You need ♪

♪ Love ♪

I thought: "Oh, this is great." So, I sent an email to Roger.

Adam, you're more than a rock star. You're a rock god.

-That's what you are, okay? -Thank you, Kara.

It was actually one of my favorite performances you've ever done.

The only problem is nobody can top that now.

My first thought was that: "Oh, this guy, amazing voice."

And, for me, he's camp Elvis.

Well, I have one criticism. I thought the performance was a little understated.

[laughter]

He's got this magnetism about him, coupled with this amazing voice.

Countless people sent me emails and rang me up and said:

"You've got to see this guy. He's your next guy.

He's the guy you need to be on stage with."

So we looked and thought, hm.

[cheering and applause]

Welcome back to the show. In a few short minutes,

either Kris Allen or Adam Lambert will walk away with the title.

The American Idol people asked us to come in and play

on the final competition night,

so, it was between Adam and this other guy.

And we played "We Are The Champions" with both of them as front men.

They are the type of guys who still love performing.

They put their egos to one side,

because they actually like working with new stars.

♪ We are the champions, my friends ♪

♪ And we'll keep on fighting Till the end... ♪

[Adam] Just meeting them for the first time, it was so surreal.

I don't even think I realized the weight of that moment until after the fact,

'cause you're preparing for the finale of a big show like that

and the week of rehearsals is a whirlwind and your head's spinning.

♪ 'Cause we are the champions ♪

♪ Of the world ♪

It was quite odd, 'cause they're both really good singers,

but there's some kind of chemistry already between us and Adam.

It was just instant, so it was so easy to just play off Adam.

I think we consciously made an effort so we wouldn't kind of favorite anyone,

but there was that feeling with Adam, like, this kind of does work.

♪ But it's been no bed of roses ♪

♪ No pleasure cruise ♪

♪ I consider it a challenge Before the whole human race ♪

-♪ And I ain't gonna lose ♪ -♪ And I need to go on and on and on... ♪

[Jared] When Brian and Roger came on the finale and played with Adam,

it was the closest thing to the energy of what Queen was as a band

that you had seen probably since Freddie.

♪ And we'll keep on fighting Till the end ♪

♪ We are the champions ♪

♪ We are the champions ♪

♪ No time for losers ♪

♪ 'Cause we are the champions ♪

♪ Of the world ♪

When Adam was on stage, right after they announced the winner,

he was not announced as the winner.

I was sitting in the front row and he looked me in the eye and he said:

"I really wanted to win."

And I mouthed to him: "You did."

I remember realizing: "Okay, now my life has changed.

Oh, my God, I just sang on stage with Queen."

So, I was thrilled, even though I didn't win, I was the runner-up,

I knew that in my way I had won.

I had won for myself, for my life.

His life was kind of booked for the next year or so,

so, there was no question of us going off with him at that moment.

That couldn't have happened.

Nevertheless, we kept loosely in touch.

[Carter] American Idol would have sent him on a very different trajectory.

He wasn't going to put an album out that was going to be hand-picked producers

and writers from the American Idol stable.

The fact that he didn't win was probably the best thing that ever happened to him.

♪ So hot, out the box Can we pick up the pace? ♪

♪ Turn it up, heat it up I need to be entertained... ♪

[Connelly] After Idol was done, he does interviews

with Rolling Stone and with ABC News where he says: "Yes, I'm gay."

This isn't some big secret.

He wasn't coming out in the sense that his life had been hidden in any way.

He was just acknowledging a truth about his life.

It was a relief. I've been open about my sexuality since I've been an adult.

You know, there were people

who felt that you should have kept your sexuality a mystery.

I know. I'm a very open book. I kind of wear myself on my sleeve.

Yes, I am a homosexual. Deal with it.

Yeah, yeah, I'm gay. What?

And? You didn't know?

[laughs]

You couldn't tell?

[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen,

making his debut performance with his first single, Adam Lambert.

[Connelly] There was great anticipation. "What will Adam do as a solo artist?"

And he comes out and he does "For Your Entertainment."

If you were looking for a performance

that would reunite Adam Lambert's American Idol fan base, this wasn't it.

[Carter] The thing starts off

and he's got a really sexy female dancer and he's pulling her around by her leg.

And then he's got the guy on all fours and he's got him on a leash.

[Connelly] But then he did something in live performance

that he hadn't told anybody he was going to do.

That on live television is a no-no.

You know, he simulated fellatio with one of his dancers.

I didn't plan it. It just happened,

which is why I think the network got mad at me

because they were, like: "We didn't know that was coming."

I didn't either!

And then takes the back of Tommy the keyboardist's head and kisses him.

[Adam] A lot of people were like: "That's not for me."

It sort of alienated a portion of my new audience

that I had gained on American Idol.

A lot of Adam Lambert's appearances

that were supposed to happen on TV got canceled.

Everyone's like: "His career is over."

[music: "Whataya Want From Me?"]

[Adam] I think I felt everyone pull back a bit.

I felt something shift after that performance

and after that single sort of didn't connect.

So, from a business end point, I was, like: "Ooh, okay, got it."

♪ Hey, slow it down ♪

♪ What do you want from me? ♪

♪ What do you want from me? ♪

Thankfully we had a song that we came with as the second single,

which actually kind of asked the question

to all the people that were upset about what I had done and said:

"What do you want from me? I'm just trying to figure it out, man."

♪ Been a time When I would give myself away ♪

♪ Oh, once upon a time... ♪

Fans, radio, all around the world, really connected with it,

so, I was really thankful that I was able

to kind of move past the little scandal that we'd created

and have a real moment with a great song, with a great message.

♪ What do you want from me? ♪

♪ Just don't give up ♪

♪ I'm working it out ♪

♪ Please don't give in... ♪

And then I put the album out,

and did the whole promo run on the back of that,

and then did my own solo tour.

♪ To breathe just keep coming around... ♪

My management at the time said: "Hey, there's interest here.

Queen really loved performing with you on the finale

and they're wondering if we could do something."

♪ What do you want from me? ♪

So once the dust all settled, or the glitter all settled from that,

and there was a lot of glitter, Queen came a-calling.

Please be upstanding for Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen!

[cheering]

Worthy recipients of MTV's Global Icon Award.

Thank you so much.

You don't know how much... It means so much to us to be here in Belfast.

Thank you. Thank you.

They had an opportunity to perform at the EMAs

and when they asked me, I immediately said yes.

It was like a knee-jerk reaction: "Yes, of course."

Hung up the phone and then started panicking and going:

"Oh, my God, this crazy, 'cause this is a big deal."

♪ Empty spaces ♪

♪ What are we living for? ♪

♪ Abandoned places ♪

♪ I guess we know the score... ♪

It was obvious that he had everything you would want in a front man.

He had confidence, and he knew what he was capable of.

♪ The show must go on ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ The show must go on ♪

♪ I'll face it with a grin ♪

♪ I'm never giving in ♪

♪ On with the show ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[guitar solo]

♪ I'll top the bill, I'll overkill ♪

♪ I have to find the will... ♪

[Braverman] There was a fan base both for Adam and for Queen

that wanted to see the two combine again.

♪ The show... ♪

♪ The show must go on ♪

There was an excitement that there could be another phase of Queen.

-Woo! -[cheering and applause]

[Hawkins] He's flamboyant, he's a great, wild front man

and that's what you need if you're going to be in Queen.

Outrageous, but you've got to be able to hit the notes too.

You know, you can't have one. You got to have both.

[Adam] All of us sat down and we had a drink.

There was a sense of camaraderie in that moment about:

"Look what we just did. This feels good. I like you, I like you, you like me."

It was an instant sense of sort of comfort and ease that we all had with each other.

We all sort of got a kick out of each other.

It felt like the right fit. It felt good.

With Adam, by the time we got together, we kind of knew, yeah,

because we'd seen enough of him and we thought: "This is going to work."

Adam comes with a certain amount of pedigree,

because he's sung his solo stuff with a lot of success.

So then we sat down together and said: "What could we do?

We could do a little bit of a tour. We could try something here."

And it gradually took shape and before... before we knew it,

we were, you know, operating with Adam.

[drum beats]

[man] One, two. Check, check, check.

We had some shows, about six shows, I think, in Europe,

starting with a massive show in Kiev.

[Brian] It must have been the most terrifying moment for Adam.

He didn't look like he was terrified. He looked like he did this every day.

[Adam] I definitely was intimidated by the idea of singing somebody else's songs,

especially from such a beloved band.

In the back of my head I was like: "Oh, God, I hope this is the right idea.

I'm so excited to sing these songs,

but I don't know how it's going to be received."

[cheering]

[Brian] It was a tall order and I think we all knew it

and that gig was put in at the front of the tour to enormous numbers of people.

I think it was more than 350,000 and it was live TV as well.

Well, it was free, wasn't it? [laughs] Let's say it was a million.

Elton John was on before us

and I remember as Elton was rolling out hit after hit after hit,

I remember thinking: "Oh. Hope we're up to this."

[interviewer] When you face an audience of some 300,000 people...

[Freddie] Mm.

...do you get intimidated by the size of that crowd?

No, the bigger the better, in everything.

[laughs] Love that.

Adam had to do in his first show with Queen

what it took Queen and Freddie Mercury ten years to do.

For Adam to start with an audience that big takes nerve.

-♪ Hey ♪ -♪ Hey ♪

-♪ Hey ♪ -♪ Hey ♪

-♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ -♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

-♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ -♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

[Gambaccini] Some people would be embarrassed to go to Kiev

and sing in front of 300,000 people they've never known.

But a performer like Adam could use it as an opportunity,

just as Freddie had always used these big crowds,

just push that envelope, let's see how many people we can get to respond at once.

[vocalizes]

[Parker] He did have experience performing for large crowds on TV.

He had experience performing for doubters.

He was used to having to win people over and all that was a perfect storm.

Then when he got in front of hundreds of thousands of people

in Kiev, he'd already been selling himself for years, he knew how to do it.

I had a lot of help. Spike, who was on keys,

I kept looking at over and over again: "Am I supposed to come in here?

How long is the guitar solo? Is it my turn?"

[music: "Radio Ga Ga"]

[Spike] Because of his stage training, he was quite happy to take cues.

He used to just check in with me and I'd give him a yes

and no if it was wrong, meaning wait.

Just a lot of me being, like...

He looked at me. I went:

-"No, not that. Don't sing that bit." -Okay.

♪ I'd sit alone and watch your light ♪

♪ My only friend through teenage nights ♪

♪ And everything I had to know ♪

♪ I heard it on my radio... ♪

[Adam] It was fun and it was thrilling

and it was what I loved the most about being a vocalist, is the adrenaline.

It's the thrill of something that could possibly go wrong.

I like that. I like the danger in that.

♪ Just don't care ♪

♪ And just complain when you're not there You had... ♪

[Roger] I had no doubts he could do it.

It was good. You know, the feeling was good.

He was out there, putting it out there, you know,

and he sang great and interacted great and it was a big success.

Here we go!

♪ All we hear is radio ga ga ♪

♪ Radio goo goo! Radio ga ga ♪

♪ All we hear is radio ga ga ♪

♪ Radio blah blah ♪

♪ Radio, what's new? ♪

♪ Radio ♪

♪ Someone still loves you... ♪

[Brian] An incredible thing for a new member of a group to step on stage

and do that... I took my hat off to him at the time.

Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Lambert!

[announcer translates into Ukrainian]

-[Adam] No. Queen! -[announcer translates into Ukrainian]

[laughs]

And, of course, the rest was easy after that.

Queen is huge everywhere.

The UK in particular, they're huge, huge, huge.

In the States, it's a bit different of a relationship.

So, I felt like it was maybe even a harder sell.

There is that perception that something hasn't happened

until it's actually happened here in America.

I don't think anyone thought that Adam Lambert and Queen coming together

was a slam dunk.

[Braverman] They were viewed in America as a heritage rock act that had hits,

but they didn't have that young audience that expected to hear new music from them,

or be able to see them live.

[Parker] The first public performance Queen did in America

was at the iHeart Radio Music Festival in Las Vegas.

I knew it was a big deal to come to Vegas and prove ourselves as a collaboration.

iHeart Radio, are you ready for another "I can't believe it" moment?

[cheering]

Please welcome Queen, featuring Adam Lambert!

[music: "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"]

♪ This thing called love ♪

♪ I just can't handle it ♪

♪ This thing called love ♪

♪ I must get round to it ♪

♪ I ain't ready ♪

♪ This crazy little thing called love ♪

♪ Oh! ♪

-♪ This thing ♪ -♪ This thing ♪

-♪ Called love ♪ -♪ Called love ♪

-♪ It cries ♪ -♪ Like a baby ♪

♪ Like a baby all night ♪

-♪ It swings ♪ -♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

-♪ It jives ♪ -♪ Ooh, ooh ♪

♪ It shakes all over like a jelly fish ♪

♪ I kind of like it ♪

♪ This crazy little thing called love... ♪

It went really well and suddenly there was a bit of magic.

[guitar solo]

[Brian] iHeart did for us in America what Belfast had done for us in Europe

and it was live TV, of course, which is a big deal.

There's no way of getting to a country quicker than live TV.

And again it just clicked.

♪ This thing called love, I just... ♪

I can't handle it ♪

♪ This thing called love ♪

♪ I must get round to it ♪

♪ I ain't ready This crazy little thing called love ♪

♪ This crazy little thing called love ♪

♪ Oh, this crazy little thing Called love ♪

♪ All right, yeah ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, this crazy little thing ♪

♪ This crazy, crazy, crazy Little thing called love ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ All right! ♪

[Brian] iHeart made a massive difference

to the way we were perceived in this country.

I think we had to pinch ourselves to make ourselves realize

that we were back at that level, a level which we had really forgotten about.

He gave us a blood transfusion, if you like.

Young blood, nothing like it.

Thank you!

[Braverman] The iHeart reaction was great.

There was immediately buzz and talk about could Queen go on tour?

Some people said: "No one is going to pay to see the band without Freddie."

Other people thought there was a demand from this audience

that wants to hear these songs live.

We actually had Adam and Queen at Madison Square Garden to announce it

and it felt like this very big moment,

the band touring America for the first time in I don't know how many years

and the press went crazy.

We're delighted to be announcing a tour of North America.

It's just such a delight for us.

We're very excited, I have to say.

It's been a while,

but this is a combination which we believe really works very well.

It'll be great to do this one more time and this is the man to do it with.

I'm like: "Whoa! Really?

I'm so excited to be asked by these two gentlemen to share the stage with them.

It feels incredible.

We put together a pretty ambitious tour,

playing 15 to 20 arenas around North America.

[Brian] People are going to say: "Is this really Queen without Freddie?"

Well, I have no idea.

But people want to hear Queen music, they want to hear it done great,

so, having this opportunity is great.

[music: "Under Pressure"]

[Braverman] We looked at where were venues

where they had these iconic performances in the past,

and let's go back and build the profile of this band up

so that they can go and sell out these venues

the same way they did at the peak of their career.

♪ Under pressure... ♪

It's good to be home in Los Angeles!

[cheering]

Oh, hello, Houston!

Hello, Chicago!

This is like a bucket list moment for me, I got to tell you.

[cheering]

Thank you for making it happen. Thank you for being here.

♪ It's the terror of knowing What this world is about ♪

♪ Watching some good friends screaming Let me out! ♪

♪ Pray tomorrow gets me higher ♪

♪ Pressure on people People on streets... ♪

Can I just ask you a very simple question? What do you think of the new guy?

[cheering]

♪ Can't we give ourselves One more chance? ♪

♪ Why can't we give love That one more chance? ♪

♪ Why can't we... ♪

I guess he's not really the new boy anymore.

-But what do you think of the other guy? -[cheering]

I guess he's all right, yeah?

Is he a keeper?

♪ The people on the edge of the night ♪

♪ And love dares you ♪

♪ To change our way Of caring about ourselves ♪

♪ This is our last dance ♪

♪ This is our last dance ♪

♪ This is ourselves ♪

♪ Under pressure ♪

♪ Under pressure ♪

♪ Pressure ♪

[cheering]

[Braverman] The success in America meant we should be able

to take this around the world, and it kind of took off.

They really focused a lot of time

on building Australia, Europe, Latin America up

and really starting from scratch,

so that people could see what Queen and Adam Lambert were together.

[cheering]

[Adam] It's the most brilliant symbiotic relationship you could dream of,

because, you know, one might say:

"Oh, Adam, you know, if it weren't for you,

they wouldn't be doing these venues or these countries."

But it's the same for me. If it weren't for them,

I wouldn't be playing arenas all around the world either.

I felt more so a sense of magic.

It's cool that they're back doing this again.

♪ Now I'm here... ♪

Japan was fantastic last time we went. It was absolutely magical.

♪ Now I'm there ♪

♪ Now I'm there... ♪

That, I think, more than anywhere else, felt like the old days.

♪ I'm just a... ♪

That brought back the memories in particular

of first going to Japan and the fantastic reaction.

♪ A baby I was when you took my hand ♪

♪ And the light of the night Burned bright... ♪

[Adam] What meant a lot to me about going back to some of these famous venues

that Queen has stamped their mark on

was seeing Brian and Roger be nostalgic about it.

That meant a lot to me.

That was really cool to be a part of those moments,

of them recalling the first time they were there and what it was like

and knowing also that there were members of the audience

that were probably there the first time.

♪ A thin moon me in a smoke-screen sky ♪

♪ Where beams of your love light chase ♪

♪ Don't move, don't speak Don't feel no pain ♪

♪ With the rain running down my face ♪

♪ Your matches still light up the sky ♪

♪ Many a tear lives on in my eye... ♪

Adam is the kind of performer that they love there as well,

because he's flamboyant, costume, lots of dressing up.

One thing he knew better than we did was how to use a camera,

how to work to a camera.

♪ Now I'm here... ♪

He's the sort of male Beyoncé of using the camera.

♪ Tokyo... ♪

[cheering]

One of the great things about being on stage with Queen

is that I've challenged myself

to try to find my own personal connection to the lyrics of their songs,

'cause I feel like without that connection, whether I wrote it or not,

uh, it doesn't really come alive for the audience.

That's part of the magic, is like believing it.

♪ I work hard every day of my life ♪

♪ I work till I ache my bones ♪

♪ At the end ♪

♪ I take home All my hard-earned pay all... ♪

[Adam] There's a few of 'em that just really hit home for me.

In learning more about Freddie over the years,

and learning that there was definitely a loneliness there,

I feel like I have enough in common

with some of the things that Freddie was going through.

I can draw upon my own experiences and make that a real moment.

♪ Somebody to love ♪

-♪ He works hard ♪ -♪ Every day ♪

♪ Every day ♪

♪ I try and I try and I try ♪

♪ But everybody always breaks me down ♪

♪ They say I'm going crazy ♪

♪ They say I got A lot of water in my brain ♪

♪ I got no common sense ♪

♪ I got nobody left to believe in ♪

-♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ -♪ Oh, yeah! ♪

[man] Being a world-famous rock star,

does this make it more difficult for you to actually keep a friendship going?

Yes, yes, because I think it's harder for other people

to try and understand me as a normal person.

'Cause basically, in terms of a...

'Cause you're talking about relationships, which is good.

So, basically, when it comes to a relationship,

it's hard to approach somebody and say: "Look, you are normal underneath it."

You have to sort of... And so I think you are handicapped.

Freddie lived in a time where, you know,

only years prior it was illegal to be homosexual,

and I can only think of the stigma that he must have had to live with.

[Parker] Adam Lambert lives in a different time.

He's able to take advantage of some of the doors

that Freddie opened for him.

♪ Love... ♪

Hit it!

When Trespassing, Adam's sophomore album, debuted at number one,

it was the first time that an openly gay musician had debuted at number one.

Freddie Mercury paved that road for him.

[Adam] I was told this is the first time

that somebody that's been out since they got signed

that this has happened to and it made me really proud.

It made me proud just to be able to, like... you know,

tell my grandkids one day or whatever, you know.

♪ Love ♪

[cheering and applause]

Sometimes I think to myself: "What would Freddie be like if he were alive today?"

And something tells me that he would have gotten more open

as the times changed a bit.

What is this on the stage?

What the heck?

Is this for a man or a woman?

That's for a man?

Great. I'll take that for later. Great.

[Adam] I'm out and proud and in a society where I feel like I can be open.

And it's a journey which we're all happy that the world has made.

But it's not over yet, you know. There is still prejudice.

There's still all sorts of abuses that go on.

-[gunfire] -[screaming]

Good evening from Orlando,

the focal point of a nation still reeling from the carnage that took place

just up the street at the Pulse nightclub.

Shocking stories of survival, harrowing escapes and heroic acts

in the face of relentless hate.

[distant siren wailing]

[Adam] This song is dedicated...

to those that lost their life last night...

in Orlando, Florida...

[cheering]

...and anybody that has been victim

of senseless violence...

or hatred.

♪ There's no time for us ♪

♪ There's no place for us... ♪

[Adam] That morning I remember hearing about the Pulse shooting in Orlando

and just thinking to myself,

"That could have been any club.

That could have been my group of friends.

It could have been me."

When we got to that song that night, I was like... [exhales]

♪ Who wants to live ♪

♪ Forever? ♪

♪ Who wants to live ♪

♪ Forever? ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ There's no chance for us ♪

♪ It's all decided for us ♪

♪ This world has only one sweet moment ♪

♪ Set aside... ♪

I've never heard it sung like that.

That's... That's special.

♪ Who wants to live forever? ♪

♪ Who wants to live forever? ♪

♪ Ooh, yeah ♪

♪ Who dares ♪

♪ To love ♪

♪ Forever? ♪

[harmonizes]

♪ When love must die... ♪

He's still astounding, you know.

The lengths he can push things to is extraordinary.

Sometimes I'm standing right here playing "Who Wants to Live Forever"

and he's there doing his thing

and when he goes into this stratospheric thing in the middle,

I very often go: "Wow!"

♪ And we can have forever ♪

♪ And we can love forever ♪

♪ Forever is our today ♪

♪ Who wants to live forever? ♪

♪ Who wants to live forever? ♪

♪ Forever is our today... ♪

[Adam] Now, when I sing it, I think about Freddie.

I think about the fact that he was taken away too soon.

♪ Who waits forever anyway? ♪

To me, it sends the message of be here now and make the most of what you have

and who you love

and who loves you, because you never know, it might be taken away tomorrow.

[cheering and applause]

[music: "Ghost Town"]

♪ Died last night in my dreams ♪

♪ Walking the streets ♪

♪ Of some old ghost town... ♪

I've had the opportunity to continue my solo career

alongside of this collaboration with Queen.

♪ A city of vampires... ♪

I think my musicianship has improved because of working with Brian and Roger,

so, it's definitely helped me grow as a solo artist as well.

♪ And now I know my heart is a... ♪

And I get to go create new songs that are mine

and then I get to go out with Brian and Roger and pay tribute to Freddie Mercury.

♪ My heart is a ghost town... ♪

[Parker] There's been a perfect storm in 2018 that happened.

Queen built up to a point where they could headline the Hollywood Bowl again,

and it would be the hottest ticket in town.

And then the Bohemian Rhapsody movie came out.

In the Bohemian Rhapsody movie, Freddie Mercury is going out with Mary

and he's calling her from a truck stop

and he's still grappling with his own sexuality

and there's this hunky trucker.

Well, that trucker's played by Adam Lambert.

[man] If you had just closed the door, I could've had it.

-[laughs] -I could've had that.

I was like: "Oh, how you doin'?"

You do feel there are two worlds of Queen colliding in that moment.

The movie has made a lot of young people hear Queen music for the very first time.

And how cool would that be that a band that was written off 30 years ago

becomes the band that makes rock cool again for the kids?

Like, how cool is that?

What's actually been quite sort of dumbfounding

is that we've actually stayed together all these years.

And when you think about it, I mean, we're the only sort of, you know,

four grande dames that have actually sort of stuck it together.

[Brian] You have to survive, and you have to survive together

and so many groups who are on the brink of the world's riches don't realize that.

They suddenly think they're too big for the group and they disappear off

and they throw away the magic, which is a group which works together.

It's something very precious.

If you find it in your lifetime, even once, you're so lucky.

And we are incredibly lucky. We found it twice, I have to say.

♪ Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah Dah dah dah dah dah ♪

♪ Dah dah dah dah dah dah ♪

[Roger] ♪ Dah ♪

♪ Bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah Dah dah dah dah dah ♪

-♪ Oh-oh! ♪ -♪ Oh-oh! ♪

-♪ Oh-oh! ♪ -[laughs]

-[man] Ready to go and do this? -Yeah, hang on.

[Brian] It's very much like in the old days.

We get together in the band room and we do harmonies.

That's what we do before a show.

-Ah. Here's Elvis. -Elvis... Elvis is in the building!

[Brian] It oils up your vocal chords and it locks you in, you know.

You hear the other people

and you rediscover how your voice fits into that structure,

and I think it's quite valuable for us to do that.

["Killer Queen" intro on keyboard]

Here we go.

♪ She's a killer queen ♪

♪ Gunpowder, gelatin ♪

♪ Dynamite with a laser beam ♪

♪ Guaranteed to blow your mind ♪

♪ Anytime ♪

♪ Ooh, recommended at the price ♪

♪ Insatiable an appetite ♪

♪ Anytime! ♪

♪ Bicycle races are coming your way ♪

[Adam] ♪ So forget all your duties, oh, yes! ♪

♪ Fat-bottomed girls They'll be riding today ♪

♪ So, look out for a big fat ass ♪

-[Roger] Hey! -[laughter and applause]

No, our harmonies are real.

And the New York Times, some dickhead in the New York Times said:

"Their harmonies were suspiciously accurate."

What a shitty thing to say.

You're right. You're right.

[Roger] When we very first met Adam, he appeared to be more of a boy.

I now see him as an incredibly accomplished man.

[Brian] Roger and I have a better relationship than we used to have

and that's important.

You know, we disagree on almost everything,

but we have that kind of mutual respect

and when we get to play together, something happens.

It was always there from the beginning, way back to the Jazz Club Room, in 1969,

or whenever it was. A long time ago, isn't it?

All right.

-Oh, the linting. Thank you. -You're very welcome.

You got to film the linting.

It's a very important part of tonight's proceedings.

We love the linting. It just gives you that extra edge.

[Roger] I hope we continue, actually, as long as it's fun...

and as long as lots of people want to see us.

Chip-chap.

-All right, then? -[Cockney accent] All right?

-Let's do it. Have a good one. -Yeah, nice one.

[crowd cheering]

[Adam] It's family now and it does feel,

like, when we're walking to stage together before a show:

"Here we go, let's do it."

♪ Are you gonna take me home tonight? ♪

♪ Oh, down beside that red firelight ♪

♪ Are you gonna let it all hang out? ♪

♪ Fat-bottomed girls You make the rockin' world go round ♪

[Braverman] After the success of the first tour,

we were well beyond people questioning: "Does it work?"

Adam brings in a whole new fan base.

There are people that come in to see Adam Lambert

and then they walk away Queen fans.

♪ I was just a skinny lad ♪

♪ Never knew no good from bad ♪

♪ But I knew life Before I left my nursery ♪

♪ Left alone with big fat Fanny... ♪

[Parker] The perception of Queen today is very different than it was

ten or 20 years ago, when people thought their glory days were behind them.

That was the perception before Adam.

♪ Oh! ♪

[Connelly] Twenty years after Freddie's death, the guys in Queen,

they're not rock musicians, they're wizards.

When we go and see their shows,

what we want to do is we want them to take us in their time machine...

back to when we were young.

♪ I've been singing with my band ♪

♪ Across the wire, across the land ♪

♪ I seen every blue-eyed floozy On the way ♪

♪ But their beauty and their style ♪

♪ Went kind of smooth after a while ♪

♪ Take me to them naughty ladies Every time ♪

♪ Oh, won't you take me home tonight? ♪

Sing it!

♪ Oh, down beside that red firelight ♪

♪ Oh, you gonna give it all you got ♪

♪ Fat-bottomed girls You make the rockin' world go round ♪

♪ Fat bottomed girls You make the rockin' world go round... ♪

[Brian] We have experienced things, which we never experienced with Freddie.

Hong Kong, how are you?

[Roger] Something's bonded us all, actually.

We feel that we can really go anywhere and do well.

Maybe China has been waiting for us. We have been waiting for China.

♪ I got mortgages and homes ♪

♪ I got stiffness in my bones ♪

♪ Ain't no beauty queens In this locality, no... ♪

The opportunity to go see your favorite band since you were a kid

and even before, my dad's favorite band, that's fantastic.

Yeah!

♪ You done made a big man out of me ♪

♪ Oh... ♪

[Hawkins] They're bigger now than they've ever been.

It's amazing that Queen can be so unique and then be the biggest band in the world.

♪ Are you gonna let it all... ♪

I've seen them five or six times.

I've taken everyone I know now.

Seeing the energy and the magnetism that they still have,

it truly is undescribable.

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

The best artists, I think, are like ambassadors to the past

and also to the future,

and if he can be the bridge that makes the younger kids

want to find out more about this Freddie guy, it's a win-win situation.

Without this guy, none of this would be happening right now.

We'd all be at home with our slippers.

[cheering]

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Adam Lambert!

[Brian] Freddie, I know for a fact, would look at what Adam is doing and say:

"Wow! How do you do some of that stuff?"

Can he sing or what?

He'd go: "Huh... Bitch!"

You know, he'd love it.

The voice is stupendous.

There is not another voice like that in this planet.

[Roger] I think he's the best singer around.

I don't know anybody that can out-sing Adam Lambert, I really don't.

[Adam] I can't believe I'm here. I'm really lucky.

And I know I'm not Freddie, but I'm here.

So, I'm going to sing the songs and do my best

and let's have a good time and let's celebrate this band and Freddie

and this amazing catalog of songs together.

[music: "Bohemian Rhapsody"]

♪ So you think you can stone me And spit in my eye ♪

♪ So you think you can love me And leave me to die ♪

♪ Oh, baby ♪

♪ Can't do this to me, baby ♪

♪ Just got to get out Just got to get right out of here ♪

♪ Ooh, yeah, ooh, yeah ♪

♪ Nothing really matters ♪

♪ Anyone can see ♪

♪ Nothing really matters ♪

♪ Nothing really matters ♪

♪ To me ♪

[cheering]

♪ Any way the wind blows ♪

[cheering and applause]

[music: "God Save The Queen" in rock 'n' roll style]