“I didn’t think I was the right kind of performer to … I didn’t think I would work on the show,” Lambert told Entertainment Week. “I thought ‘Oh, I’m not the type that they look for.’” Despite the enormous risk Adam, 26 at the time, was eager for something to happen — and he knew he had to give it a shot just to see.
The singer was incredibly nervous at his first audition in 2009, but instantly “felt a good connection to Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Kara DioGuardi.” However his first song didn’t quiet fly. He performed Michael Jackson’s ‘Rock with You’ which didn’t impress any of the judges. After pleading with them to try another song, he say Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which was what American Idol aired to viewers. Lambert was an instant hit.
Royal Response
Within days of the show airing in the U.S, Queen’s lead guitarist, Brian May, saw the performance via social media.”It was evident that he was something completely out of the ordinary,” May wrote in his book ‘Queen in 3-D’. “And into my inbox came a deluge of people saying, ‘You must get together with this guy; he is the natural successor to Freddie; he is the guy you should be touring with.’”
In the final stage of American Idol, May and his fellow Queen bandmate Roger Taylor performed with the final contestants. “It was really blindingly obvious that there was a chemistry already between us and Adam. It just happened completely naturally and made us all smile,” May said.
When Idol ended in 2009, Lambert didn’t take home the title. However the experience gave him every confidence to pursue a career in the music industry. After a chance meeting with May at the MTV Europe Awards show in Belfast, Ireland, Queen and Adam began officially touring together — and they’ve been on the road ever since.
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May said of Lambert’s arrival into the fold: “It wasn’t until this young man appeared – I’d call him a gift from God. Adam.” He continues “We didn’t ask for him, we didn’t look for him – he just turned up. And he could do everything.”
But what about Freddie?
“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 Freddie was going through.” Lambert says in the documentary film The Show Must Go On.
