Roger Taylor

Prior to his Queen tenure, Roger Taylor kept time for the late-1960s hard rock outfit Smile with Brian May, the guitarist who would later join the same lineup. The ensemble evolved into Queen in 1970 once flamboyant lead singer Freddie Mercury came aboard. Throughout the following decade Taylor usually supplied one or two tracks to each Queen album and handled vocals on those he wrote. He became the first band member to launch a solo career when he issued the single “I Wanna Testify” in 1977. Although the release made no chart impression, Taylor pressed ahead and completed the solo album Fun in Space in 1981. The modestly successful effort found him exploring more direct, politically charged rock than Queen typically delivered. He continued with 1984’s Strange Frontier, whose sound recalled Bruce Springsteen’s work from the same era.

After Queen’s Magic Tour concluded in 1986, Taylor started his own group, the Cross, and switched to guitar. The band put out three albums from 1987 to 1991 yet attracted scant notice in England. Following Freddie Mercury’s death from AIDS in 1991, Taylor resumed solo activity with the 1994 album Happiness?. Its opening single, “Nazis 1994,” was barred from Radio 1 and several retail outlets amid fears it could spark neo-Nazi disturbances. Even so, the track became Taylor’s first English hit and was trailed by two further U.K. Top 40 singles, “Happiness” and “Foreign Sand.” Electric Fire appeared in 1998, introducing faint electronica elements to his rock foundation. In 2001 Taylor joined May to perform at Queen’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. He reunited with May for the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour that ran from 2005 to 2006, a collaboration that produced the 2008 studio album The Cosmos Rocks. Taylor delivered his fifth studio album, the politically and socially conscious Fun on Earth, in 2013. That year also saw the solo-career box set The Lot. Omnivore Records followed the archival package with reissues of Fun in Space and Strange Frontier in 2015.