The Queen Extravaganza, a one-of-a-kind official Queen tribute band sanctioned by Queen's own Brian May and Roger Taylor, made its grand television debut Thursday night on "American Idol," joined by surprise guests Brian and Roger themselves. And after the show, Extravaganza members Marc Martel, Tristan Avakian, and Jennifer Espinosa headed backstage with their superstar mentors to talk with Yahoo!'s Reality Rocks about the performance, with Brian declaring, "It felt good! We had a lot of fun up there, and having fun is a big part of it. [Roger and I] were only on for like, 40 seconds--but it was the best 40 seconds of my life, what can I tell ya!"
The Queen Extravaganza was assembled via a nationwide "Idol"-esque talent search spearheaded by Roger, who explained the unique concept: "We're very proud of our legacy, Brian and myself, and we've been able to have a great canon of music, and we wanted it to be performed brilliantly by a brilliant group. And we think we're the best people qualified to make sure that that's the way it happens. That's why we went to such lengths to scour the bedrooms of North America to find the talent! And we found it."
While the Queen Extravaganza is touring the States this summer, Brian and Roger will be playing a few one-off dates overseas, in a special Queen lineup fronted by "Idol's" own Adam Lambert, whom they first met on the amazing Season 8 "Idol" finale three years ago. When asked what fans can expect from that understandably much-hyped collaboration, Roger exclaimed, "Fireworks!" And Brian expounded: "Something different. [Adam] has an extraordinary voice, there's no way you can get around that--whether you love him or hate him. He's extraordinary. So we'll be exploring new ways to do things. We don't like to just reproduce what we did before; we like to move on and try new ways of doing stuff. So it will be exciting!"
Watch Brian, Roger, and the Queen Extravaganza's exciting full interview below, for Brian's additional thoughts on the top six and Elise Testone's elimination; clarification on the supposed Ace Young/Brian May spat of Season 5; why Brian would never sign up to be an "Idol" judge; a close-up look at the obviously extremely committed Jennifer Espinosa's Queen tattoo; and Marc Martel's explanation as to why it's simply impossible for him to not sound like Freddie Mercury.
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