Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vordez News Radio eleven ten KFAB. I'm Scott Boorhees
here with Lucy Chapman and this is Killer Queen. That
is the voice of Patrick Myers fulfilling the role and
the vocal range of Freddie Mercury for this Queen tribute band,
(00:24):
Great Queen Song Here, one vision and you can see
this show on July twenty second next month here in
Lincoln at the Rococo Theater. And we've got Patrick Myers
on the phone right now with us here on eleven
ten KFA B. Patrick, Good morning, Hey, good morning to you, yes,
or good afternoon. You're calling us from great Britain right now.
(00:47):
And how great is Britain today?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm in England and it's raining, of course, it's raining.
It's England, of course, So yeah, looking for it back
over to America.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, it'd be great to have you here. You guys
are not just playing Lincoln, you're also playing, among other places,
Red Rocks, which is one of the great places to
see live music in America. What does it mean for
you to carry on the legacy of Queen through this
tribute band, Killer Queen.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It means the world to me. They are fantastic songs.
They are world beating songs that are loved by generations
and generations of music lovers all over the world. My
respect for the band is just enormous. So we're one
of many tributes that are also paying tribute to Queen.
(01:41):
But we've been We've seem to have been going the
longest because we were one of the first tributes to
Queen on the planet. So to carry these songs with
us and carry out flags for Queen all around the
world has been the massive privilege and great fun because
the songs themselves are just dynamic and brilliant and really
exciting to play and really get an audience on fire. Yeah,
(02:03):
So to do that all over the world for all
this time, it's been wonderful.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
It's been one now nearly thirty three, thirty four years
since we lost Freddy Mercury.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Ninety three to yeah, thirty one years.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Thirty one years. So when where were you when you
heard the news about Freddy? And when did you make
a decision. I'll step in to that vocal range and
we'll see what we can do.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I didn't make a decision, Yeah, Well it sort of
happened in a weird kind of way. It happened all
in a little like dominoes all falling. We got the
news that Freddy had died. I'd heard that he was
ill for the first time just the week before. I'd
seen him looking older. I knew he was older looking
than the rest of the band, and he seemed to
be aging quicker, and I, because I was so young,
I didn't understand that that was you know, that there
(02:47):
was something wrong. He had done interviews and said that
he was HIV negative and he was fine, and I
just completely left it at that sort of brilliant he's fine,
He's going to be okay. Then, So when he died,
it was it was a massive show. And I was
at university, I just left I was at college, I
just left home a few weeks before that. So it
(03:09):
was a very shocking and isolating thing to happen because
it was like your childhood hero who you thought was invincible,
was suddenly gone and you and I was just away
from home at the same time, and we're making friends
with completely new people. So we all bonded over queen
music together. We played each other the songs in an
old laundry room which had a piano in and taught
(03:30):
each other the songs. And then I was always I'd
always been a vocal mimic, so I tried to mimic
John Lennon. I tried to mimic Neil Tennant from the
Petroop Boys. I tried to mimic who else, all sorts
of people who read David Bowie, you know. But I'd
also tried to mimic Freddie Mercury, and I thought, and
(03:51):
then I realized I could potentially look like him at
the same time, which was a few weeks after he died,
which I never seen. I'd never noticed, I never realized before.
So everything's happened in the massive, great weird snowball, and
we thought we were teaching each other for songs, and
I thought maybe we should just do one concert or
two concerts, because there was this one band doing a
tribute to Beyond, to Abboc or Beyond again, and we thought,
(04:13):
maybe maybe there's maybe people would understand if we did
a queen tribute. But that was like a new thing
because there wasn't tribute in those days. There wasn't a
whole you know, like an army of them. It was
just there was just this one man so we just thought, Okay, well,
let's try and put this together. I was doing a
degree in London University at the time, and it just
all seemed to sort of fall into took place. It
(04:35):
took a lot of time, took a lot of love
and a lot of work, but we ended up doing
this one show, and this one show took off, and
thirty thirty one, thirty two years later, we've been playing
all around the world. We've played some of the same
arenas that Queen has played, selling them out and things.
So it's been an extraordinary journey. But it just started.
It didn't start by accident, but it was a weird
(04:57):
chain of events that just everything seemed to sort of
like from each other. It felt like an inevitability rather
than the decision. So yeah, and it's just been an
extraordinary ride. And it's been the sort of the journey
of a lifetime for me, and I've loved it. It's
been wonderful.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Patrick Myers with us here. He is the Freddie Mercury
of Killer Queen as the Tribute Band is performing July
twenty second in Lincoln at the Rococo Theater. Take an
information at Killer Queen dot com. Patrick as you know,
there is a very big difference in mimicking the vocals
of Lou Reed versus mimicking the vocals of Freddie Mercury. No, yeah, yeah,
(05:37):
no one. No one would blame you if you decided
to take a song down a couple of notes. There
are there any of those notes where you're like, you know,
I would love to hear I'd love to hit that
big sorry note on this song or that song, but
try as I might, I just can't quite do it.
(05:57):
And so we get to take the song down.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, we know, we just what we do is we
tend to sort of like we try and stay as
close as we can to the records. There's the odd
song here and there that we drop a key on
when it's it's it's more to do with an audience
participation number and you want them to sing along as well,
so the key is less sort of like important in
(06:20):
terms of where it's seen. A song like I Want
to Break Free or something like that. But now generally
we try and keep us for as much as possible.
We try and keep things in the same sort of
audio spectrum as Queen but Yes already had an extraordinary
range and he's he is matchless, I think, and from
(06:41):
the moment I sort of listened to his voice properly,
which is on a school trip with someone else that
someone lent me a cassette of Queen great as tips
One put it on my ears and said, listen to this,
you're going to love it. I was absolutely in love
with his voice and Brian's guitar and the whole sound
of the band. I just thought they sounded wonderful. So
he is pretty matchless. I think the way he could
convey a song, the emotion he could put in the song,
(07:02):
and the the the improvisational sort of like free spirit
he'd add in terms of how he'd phrased stuff. I
think it's just wonderful and I just love it, you know. So, yeah,
he's big shoes to try and sort of waddle around with,
but you know, we have a lot of fun doing it,
(07:24):
and the audiences really enjoy what we do, so you know, yeah,
cued Doster Freddy. Qued Doster Freddy. Yeah, you mean he
wasn't remains a hero to me.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You look like him, you sound like him, The band
looks like him. You've got a big presence on stage,
even down to the live aid kind of atmosphere that
you create and during part of this show, is there
a song that you prefer to sing among all others,
even if it's not on the regular set list? What's
your favorite Queen song to sing?
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I love a song called over Our Lives and I
love it because a it's a beautiful song, but be
it's some songs, you know, songs aren't just a thing
on their own. You interact with the song. A song
becomes as meaning for you because of how it hit
you in your life, not just how great it is
(08:17):
as a song. Now, Days of My Lives is a
great song, but it hit me at a moment this
is way before I formed the tribute, when I really
need some help and I wasn't feeling so great and
that song landed. It was felt like an angel in
it landed and right beside me and really helped me
out of a difficult time that was scary and not
much fun. And it remains to me a very beautiful
(08:43):
song and it moves me, you know, when I hadn't
even seen the video when I first heard the song,
but the video is an extraordinary last you know, would
sort of like shining beacon of Beauty from Freddy, even
though he looks terribly ill in it. He's shot like
a nineteen thirties movie star in black and white, and
he says I still love you at the end to
the audience and breaks down into a smile because just
(09:07):
the sort of you know, even the awful tragedy he
was facing, he could still face it with humor and
you know, and see the extraordinary, different conflicting qualities of
life all at once. So yes, it's that song for
me will always be incredibly close to my heart, and
(09:28):
we do do it live. But it's a song of
particular resonance to me. But I think everyone has that,
you know, they'll they'll have a song that hits them
at a certain time of their life, whether it's there,
you know, whether it's a song that becomes part of
a couple song or whether it's a going out and
party song like don't Stop Me Now. Songs don't just
exist on their own, They sort of merge with you
(09:49):
and become part of your life, you know, and a
soundtrack to your life. And so that song is a
big part of the soundtrack for my life.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
It's a fantastic song and you can say the same
thing about the same part. Right before Freddy passed, he
was really weak. He went into the recording studio and
they said, look, we don't have to do the song
if you don't want to, or we can take it
down a key or whatever. He's like, just move out
of my way, Darling, and gave us The Show Must
go On. And that is the song that that is increased.
(10:19):
That is an increased volume when I'm playing it and
singing along to.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Yeah, It's an extraordinary song, an absolutely extraordinary song. And
I love a New Endo as well. I mean, I'm
a huge fan of that album, but those songs, particularly
The Show Must Go On is an absolute I mean,
how many bands producing stuff for his career best at
the very end what effectively became the very end of
(10:45):
their career for Freddy with with Freddy so I just
speak in their recording career with Freddy well he was
still alive. How many bands can produce stuff of that quality?
You know, I just think we know a phenomenal They
They made me want to well, they make me want
to do what I've done, which is championed them all
my life, you know, because you know, I love how
(11:08):
the whole world accepts queen and loves Queen now and
they had to fight for that position. You know that
that wasn't handed to them on a plate. They had
to sort of like they had their ups and downs
in terms of public reception and stuff. But now they're
sort of recognized. You know, they've just won the Polar
Music Award, and which is recognizing the whole career. And
I'm so pleased that that's happening for them, because because
(11:30):
they are, their career is extraordinary and what they achieved together,
you know, in Freddy's Last Months was absolutely amazing, and
a beautiful song like Don't Try So Hard, which is
off the album Innuendo, which I guess hardly anyone will
know if you haven't listened to the album. It's Freddy
singing his falsetto voice for the most part, but the
(11:52):
sentiments of that song are just so beautiful, and the
sentiments of Show Must go On. It is extraordinary that
the very clear subtext of that song, you know, it's
you know, it's supposed to be written for the point
of view of a clown facing an audience. You know,
but but but obviously that that that's so so it
(12:12):
was so much more than that. It was so actually
written about Freddie. But they use this, you know, you
use a mask to become the reality, and they use
that mask of a clown to sort of face up
to the reality that Freddie was about to go through
and was going through. And his his vocal on that
is absolutely extraordinary. It's a song that that it's it's
(12:33):
it's I haven't got any tattoos, but that song feels
like it's tattooed all over my chest. It's it's it's
so part of my fiber, you know, because it's such
an extraordinary song, and I feel so proud and so pleased,
not just for Queen but for Freddie in particular, because
I'm sure you must have been so proud of that
as a vocal it's so brilliant and I'm yeah it words, Fay.
(13:00):
We love playing that song as a band. We absolutely
adore it. It is an extraordinary song.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Well I can I can tell that what you do
on stage is a true heartfelt tribute. It's not like,
yeah I can sing like that, Yeah, let's let's do it.
You know, I'm a huge Elton John fan and sometimes
I go see someone do the Elton John thing. And
they put on the boa and they think I'm Elton John.
No you're not. You don't you don't have that connection
to the music. Patrick, I can tell you've got the
(13:29):
connection to the music, my friend. I'll look forward to
seeing you July twenty second at the Rococo Theater and
Lincoln as Killer Queen is performing. There not to be
missed to go to Killer Queen dot com to see
Patrick Myers and this band performed live July twenty second
at the Rococo and Lincoln Killer Queen dot com. Patrick,
I love talking to you. I'll always talk to a
(13:50):
fellow Freddie fan. Thank you very much for the time.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Hey, it's been a pleasure. Scott By Mornings nine to eleven,
New Radio eleven ten Kfab