Queen + Adam Lambert return to the road this week, kicking off the 23-date North American Rhapsody Tour on Wednesday, Nov. 4th in Baltimore. The trek will take the group — which includes founding Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor in addition to Lambert, an “American Idol” runner-up in 2009 — from coast to coast through November 12th, with two-night stays in several cities including Baltimore, New York, Boston, St. Paul, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The troupe formed during 2011, after May and Taylor performed with Lambert on “American Idol,” and has been touring since 2012. May tells us that fans can again count on hearing a night full of Queen's greatest hits, which are so numerous that it makes it hard for the group to dig deeper into the catalog:
“It would be heresy, I think, because we just don't kind of do that. There's so much stuff in the Queen oeuvre, if you like. You're always trying to squeeze stuff in. Anything you squeeze in you have to squeeze something else out, and, I think, we have a kind of duty to play all the stuff that Queen fans love and expect to hear.” :22 OC: expect to hear.
Queen + Adam Lambert came after May and Taylor's association with Paul Rodgers during the 2000s. Queen bassist John Deacon, who's retired from music, has never been part of these tours.
Queen + Adam lambert took the Rhapsody Tour through Europe during the summer of 2022, covering 11 countries in 36 shows and including a performance at Buckingham Palace as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebration.
The trio will be assisted on this leg of the tour by longtime keyboardist Spike Edney, Neil Fairclough on bass and Tyler Warren on percussion.
Earlier this year May released an expanded, boxed set edition of “Star Fleet Project,” a 1983 album collaboration with Eddie Van Halen, REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer and others.