When people think of Queen, their minds immediately go to the genius of Freddie Mercury. While his off-kilter melodrama is what ultimately set the band apart from their peers, each member has contributed their flare across the band’s tenure.
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Drummer Roger Taylor has played a large role in the band’s songwriting. His credits include “Radio Ga Ga” and “Under Pressure.” On top of his songwriting chops, his drumming is deeply distinctive. When it comes to rock drummers, few are as instantly recognizable as Taylor–both in playing style and reputation.
In celebration of the rock icon, find 10 of his best quotes, below.
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1. “It’s good to be busy. I prefer that than sitting back and enjoying life.”
2. “The sicker Freddie got, the more he seemed to need to record, to give himself something to do, some sort of reason to get up.”
3. “We’ve been fairly eclectic in our time, and we did branch out. Whenever we got a little bit too far out, people started to moan and groan a bit.”
4. “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.”
5. “I don’t want impersonators playing our music badly.”
6. “I reckoned I could meet more girls being in a band than playing soccer.”
7. “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 mustache, and what they’re missing out is the fact that the music is quite complicated and actually not easy to perform.”
8. “‘We Are the Champions’ is meant to be ‘we,’ as in ‘all of us,’ collectively, not us the band. It’s a shame that some people understandably had the wrong take on that. ‘No time for losers’ is not the kindest line, but it’s really more of a ‘we all of us.’ It’s a celebration.”
9. “We thought Queen were quite tongue in cheek.”
10. “There are an awful lot of bands out there doing our old act. An awful lot of fake mustaches and underwhelming performances.”
Photo by John Lamparski/WireImage
