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29th August 2019

Spike Edney: Rolling Stone Interview

Queen Keyboardist Spike Edney on Live Aid, What Freddie Mercury Was Really Like - The band’s secret weapon shares 35 years of Queen memories, from playing Trivial Pursuit with Freddie Mercury to discovering Adam Lambert on ‘American Idol’.

On joining Queen...

I don’t know what happened, but they needed someone. It’s really about being in the right place at the right time. I was playing in London at a bar and a member of Queen’s crew came in, someone I had known 10 years before. It was, “What are you doing here?” and yada, yada, yada. I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I’m working for Roger Taylor. Queen needs a keyboard player. Do you want the job?” I went, “Yeah, of course.”

Of course, that is not how these things are done. You usually show up somewhere and sit down near 200 other keyboard players, wait your turn and then go home and then wait for the phone to tell you that you haven’t got it. This was different. I turned up to where I was told to go, I walked in and got interviewed by the legendary Gerry Stickells. He is one of the great men of rock & roll. Sadly, he passed away this year.

He said to me, “Do you have a passport?” I said I did. He said, “Are you available to go to on a world tour?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “OK, on Monday, you fly out to Munich and start rehearsals.” I said, “What? That’s ludicrous! What happens if they don’t like me?” He said, “Then on Tuesday, you’ll fly back.” And here we are 35 years later.

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The SAS Band play the Shepherds Bush Empire in aid of The Mercury Phoenix Trust on September 14th - Tickets are on sale now - buy here.