Roger Taylor

At 75 years old, Roger Taylor has this physical status:

Roger Meddows Taylor (born 26 July 1949) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer for the rock band Queen.

As a drummer, Taylor was recognised early in his career for his unique sound.

He was voted by radio listeners as the eighth-greatest drummer in classic rock music history in a poll conducted by Planet Rock in 2005.As a songwriter, Taylor contributed songs to Queen's albums from the beginning, composing at least one track on every album, and often singing lead vocals on his own compositions.

He wrote or co-wrote three UK number 1s ("These Are the Days of Our Lives", "Innuendo" and "Under Pressure") and contributed a further five major hits ("Radio Ga Ga", "A Kind of Magic", "Heaven for Everyone", "Breakthru", and "The Invisible Man").

He is also the main writer on the international top-ten hit "One Vision", although the track is credited to the whole band.

He has collaborated with such artists as Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Phil Collins, Genesis, Jimmy Nail, Elton John, Gary Numan, Shakin' Stevens, Foo Fighters, Al Stewart, Steve Vai, Yoshiki, Cyndi Almouzni, and Bon Jovi.

As a producer, he has produced albums by Virginia Wolf, Jimmy Nail and Magnum. In addition to his drum work, Taylor is also well known for his falsetto vocal range.

He sometimes played keyboards, guitars and bass on his own songs.

During the 1980s, in addition to his work with Queen, he formed a parallel band known as the Cross, in which he was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist.

During the early 1980s, Taylor was also a panellist on the popular UK quiz show Pop Quiz, hosted by Mike Read.

In 2014, he appeared in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern as himself.

Early life

Roger Taylor was born on 26 July 1949 at West Norfolk & Lynn Hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk. The new maternity ward was opened by Princess Elizabeth (the future queen, Elizabeth II), where she was introduced to 16 new mothers including Winifred Taylor, his mother. Taylor first lived at 87 High Street in King's Lynn and later moved to Beulah Street in the town. Taylor's first school was Rosebury Avenue school. Taylor moved to Truro, Cornwall, in south west England, with his mother Winifred, father Michael and younger sister Clare. When he was seven years old, he and some friends formed his first band, the Bubblingover Boys, in which he played the ukulele. He briefly attended Truro Cathedral School; at the age of 13, he joined Truro School as a day boy. At the age of 15, Taylor became a member of the Reaction, a semi-professional rock band formed mainly of boys from Truro School. Taylor had originally learned guitar, but became a drummer when he realised he had a more natural aptitude for it. Taylor taught himself to tune his drums, inspired by Keith Moon of the Who because of the "great drum sounds" on the early Who records. Another key influence on Taylor was drummer Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who Taylor stated was his early role model.

In 1967, Taylor went to London to study dentistry at the London Hospital Medical College, but he became bored with it and changed to biology obtaining a BSc at East London Polytechnic.

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Career

After a friend noticed an advertisement on a noticeboard at Imperial College for a drummer, Taylor and Tim Staffell met in 1968. May on lead guitar, Staffell on lead vocals and bass, and Taylor on drums followed Taylor on drums. Staffell and the band were together for two years before staffell left to Humpy Bong, leaving the band with a nine-track catalogue.

Smile reunited for a number of hits on December 22, 1992. The Cross, Taylor's band, were headliners, and he brought May and Staffell on to perform "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter."

Taylor was working with Freddie Mercury in Kensington Market in London in 1969 (they were sharing a flat at the same time). Freddie Bulsara, then known as Freddie Bulsara, was a fan of Smiles. In 1970, the band split up. Taylor turned down the opportunity to be a drummer for Genesis this year, resulting in Phil Collins' departure. Bulsara persuaded Smile's remaining two members to join the band and he renamed Queen. They recruited bassist John Deacon in 1971 before going on to release their self-titled debut album in 1973. Taylor is the band's third most well-known songwriter, with each album releasing one or two songs.

Taylor has had a fruitful solo career, releasing six albums. In 1977, his first single was "I Want to Testify," a song that was performed during the Queen's sessions for the News of the World album. Although the A-side was a continuation of the Parliaments song of the same name, it was totally different from the original. "Turn on the TV" was a self-penned song on the B-side.

Fun in Space, Taylor's first solo album, was released in 1981, on which he performed all vocals and played all keyboards except for about half of the keyboards, which were contributed by engineer David Richards. Taylor was unable to sell the album to its fullest extent due to heavy touring and recording at the time of Kensington Market's opening, London's first lady, George Sobel, was only on some European television shows to promote the album's single, "Future Man" including Top of the Pops. "My Country," the album's second single, was titled "My Country." "Let's Get Crazy" was the only US single to be released from the album.

Strange Frontier, Taylor's next solo venture, appeared in June 1984. The three singles from the album were "Beautiful Dreams" (in Portugal) and "Man on Fire," the former being a lifelong favorite for him in later years. Since the Queen was touring to promote The Works, Taylor did not appear on any television shows, there were no plans to advertise the singles. Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and John Deacon's guest appearances on Strange Frontier included guest appearances. Mercury performed backing vocals on "Killing Time," Deacon remixed "I Cry For You," and Rick Parfitt co-wrote and performed on "It's An Illusion." At the time, David Richards, the Queen's engineer and producer, co-wrote two of the songs. The collection includes excerpts from Bruce Springsteen's "Racing on the Street" and Bob Dylan's "Masters of War."

Taylor co-produced Vigilante, the sixth studio album by rock band Magnum, in 1986. Taylor formed the Cross, a new band that has released three albums in their six years of existence, after the Queen's 1986 Magic Tour. After playing one last gig at the Gosport Festival in 1993, the band split up.

The album Happiness?

Taylor's fourth solo album Electric Fire debuted in 1998. Taylor also appeared in one of the first internet gigs, for which he was given credit in the Guinness Book of World Records. Taylor released Fun on Earth on October 11, 2013. Taylor also released The Lot, a compilation that includes all of his work outside of Queen.

Taylor released a new single "Isolation" on June 21 in reaction to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The album debuted on the top of the UK iTunes Rock chart. Taylor unveiled his new solo album, Outsider, on May 7, 2021, which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart in 2021.

The Cross were a side project of Taylor's who lived from 1987 to 1993 and released three albums. Taylor, who is also the Queen's drummer, appeared on the Cross as a rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist. The Cross took dance influences from their debut album, which they later dropped on their remaining two albums.

Following the Queen's 1986 Magic Tour, the band members split up to do various solo gigs. Taylor decided to form a new band with whom he could tour. He had already written and recorded Shove It before deciding on a band to perform the songs with. In a national newspaper, he eventually ran an ad for band members, hinting at his fame as a well-known rock artist. After having participated in two fruitful Queen tours, Spike Edney was duly offered the position of keyboard player. When the auditions were over, Peter Noone on bass, Clayton Moss on guitar, and Josh Macrae on drums had completed the line-up. Taylor will take over lead vocals and rhythm guitar.

Shove It was launched in 1988. "Heaven for Those" (later a Queen song) featured Freddie Mercury on lead vocals and Taylor on backing vocals in Europe. On the single version and the American album version, however, the roles were reversed. In the 2nd Shelf Mix, the European CD had an extra track (compared to cassette and LP), with the US version featuring "Feel the Force" as its extra track. The band performed well (particularly in Germany), with several TV performances of singles including an appearance at the Montreux Golden Rose festival in 1988. In both the United Kingdom and Germany, the tour took place in dates. "Cowboys and Indians," "Heaven for Everyone" and "Shove It" were among the album's three singles: "Cowboys and Indians," "Heaven for Everyone" and "Shove It" were among the album's "Shove It." In 1988, "Manipulator," a new single, was released, but not on any album. Taylor also shared them with Edney and Steve Strange as the only song from the time with joint writing credits, making it the only one from the time.

Taylor went into the studio with the rest of the Cross for the first time to record Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know. The band produced the opening song "On Top of the World Ma" with a riff that had a resemblance to Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." The remainder of the album consists mainly of individually written songs, except for "Power To Love," which was the result of Macrae, Noone, and Moss' combined effort. Clayton Moss performed lead vocals on his own album "Better Things," and Spike Edney played mandolin on "Final Destination," which Taylor wrote. "Final Destination" was released as a single, as had "Liar" and "Power To Love," the latter being the band's last single to be released in the United Kingdom. As a B-side, "Final Destination" was a live interpretation of Taylor's song "Man on Fire" on B-side, and "In Charge of My Heart," Taylor's song "Man on Fire") was also written by Taylor. Both "Liar" and "In Charge of My Heart" were extended remixes on both "Liar" and "In Charge of My Heart" on the 12" single and CD. On the accompanying tour, the instrumental section at the start of "In Charge of My Heart" was used as the opening to concerts. "You're The One" (Edney) had been intended to be released in America, but never was. The company, which has reportedly given up on the UK market, only offered tour dates in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Ibiza. Any song from the new album's tour was played live, which was unusual for such tours.

Blue Rock, which was made at a time when Taylor's attentions were primarily focused on Queen and Mercury, gave the other members of the band a chance to have a say in the forthcoming album. It was mainly written by Edney, who wrote three of his own tracks and assisted with four others. Once more, the entire band wrote "Bad Attitude" was written (although not completely) by the 1990 Christmas fan club party. Edney and Noone were among the album's vocals, mainly by Edney and Noone. "Put It Down To Love" (Edney), "Life Changes" (Moss, Noone, Edney, and Macrae) and "Heartland"—the B-side to "Life Changes" written by Noone, with examples of this. Blue Rock was only available in Germany (though promotional copies were issued in Italy and Japan), so copies are very rare. "New Dark Age" (Taylor) was broadcast in Germany with another live version of "Man on Fire," but "Life Changes" was not announced with the B-side "Heartland" B-side. However, it was later cancelled due to Mercury's death. The tour was in favor of Magnum, so the concert time were short (45 minutes) and very few bootlegs survived. The tour was fast, with 20 dates in less than a month.

After playing a final show, the band disbanded in 1993. Taylor continued to perform for the Queen and released solo albums. Drummer Macrae joined Taylor on his solo tours and appeared on percussion at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Both Taylor and keyboardist Edney appeared on the Queen + Paul Rodgers tours, while Macrae worked behind the scenes as co-producer, sound engineer, and Pro Tools engineer for them. Edney formed the SAS Band ("Spike's All Stars") in the late 1990s, a band with an ever-changing lineup of 1980s musicians.

Taylor has appeared in various other occasions and promotions, including Queen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and "Party at the Palace" in 2002, commemorating Queen Elizabeth II's golden jubilee. For the film We Will Rock You, Taylor, May, and Mike Dixon received the Helpmann Award in Australia for Best Music Direction. Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers opened the show at Wembley Stadium in 2007.

Taylor and May, Queen of the United Kingdom, appeared on American Idol three times. The first appearance was on April 11, 2006, during which the contestants were required to perform a Queen song for the first week. "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Fat Bottomed Girls," "The Show Must Go On," "Who Wants to Live Forever," and "Innuendo" were among the songs performed. In May 2009, Queen Elizabeth appeared on the show's season 8 finale, with finalists Adam Lambert and Kris Allen performing "We Are the Champions." During the eleventh season on April 25-26, 2012, the three finalists appeared in a Queen medley, along with the six finalists on the first show. They performed "Some to Love" with the Queen Extravaganza band on the following day.

Taylor appeared on The X Factor in November 2009 as Queen X Factor and performing "Bohemian Rhapsody." Taylor Hawkins revealed that he was planning to tour with Taylor Hawkins, which Taylor described as a "quick tour." On Sunday, Queen received the Global Icon Award, and Taylor and May closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, "The Show Must Go On," "We Will Rock You," and "We Are the Champions." Taylor, Steven Tyler, and Roger Daltrey joined Edge Music Network's advisory board in 2011. Taylor performed in the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London on August 12th.

Taylor appeared as an executive producer on Solitary, directed by Sasha Krane in 2013 and 2014. He provided original music in the film and three instrumental songs that act as incidental/background music in the film and during the closing credits, in addition to those duties. On the track "Wrath," Taylor appeared as a special guest for Welsh Rock artist Jayce Lewis and his project Protafield. Taylor, a current British and Irish pop act, performed on the new version of the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" on November 15, 2014, on the charity group "Do They Know It's Christmas?" At Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to raise funds for the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Western Africa.

Taylor, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, and Foo Fighters' John Paul Jones performed a cover of the Queen and David Bowie song "Under Pressure" on September 5, 2015 in Milton Keynes. On April 1, 2019, Taylor issued a new single called "Gangsters Are Running This World," as well as on April 8, a more bouncing version of this song called "Gangsters Are Running This World-Purple Version." Both versions were released on April 8, 2019. He and Czech Arsenal goalkeeper Petr esch's song "That's Football" was released on May tenthy, which he wrote about for his retirement football career.

Taylor embarked on a 14-date solo tour (Outsider Tour) in the United Kingdom from 2 October to October 22nd.

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