'American Idol' Star Adam Lambert Almost Didn’t Sing "Bohemian Rhapsody" for His Audition
Adam Lambert has gone from competing on American Idol to touring the world with the legendary rock band Queen.
His success prompted a documentary on ABC called The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story. And this past fall, the 38-year-old released his six-track EP album Velvet: Side A with the longer version set to drop in March.
It's easy to see that Adam is a huge star in the music industry. But it wasn't too long ago that he was just a struggling theatre kid trying to get noticed.
In the early 2000s (before American Idol), Adam was bouncing around between various performances. He took on many roles starting when he was just 19, including The Ten Commandments: The Musical, 110 in the Shade, and Wicked (he was the understudy for Fiyero). He also was the frontman for the underground rock band The Citizen Vein.
Still, nothing really broke through for Adam. In the back of his mind, though, he told Entertainment Week that he wanted to try out for American Idol. He had watched the magical moment that Kelly Clarkson was crowned the champion of the first season and thought, "Wow, that would be really cool." But there were a few things stopping him.
Adam worried about "fitting in" on American Idol
"I didn’t think I was the right kind of performer to … I didn’t think I would work on the show," Adam told the outlet. "I thought 'Oh, I’m not the type that they look for.'”
That, and the fact that TV producers told him that he'd have to quit his job as a theater performer in order to be considered for the show (you couldn't be under any sort of "entertainment contract" while on American Idol, Adam said). In other words, if the Indianapolis-native didn't make it, he'd be without health insurance and a steady income.
Despite the enormous risk, Adam, 26 at the time, was eager for something to happen — and he knew he had to give it a shot just to see.
"[I thought] 'Why don’t I just try out? Why don’t I just try?' Even though I still thought, 'Nah, this is a long shot.'”
The doubt, though, was all in Adam's head. When he first stepped into his audition in 2009, the future star was nervous, but instantly "felt a good connection" to Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Kara DioGuardi.
Still, they weren't thrilled with his performance. For his first song, Adam chose Michael Jackson's "Rock With You." After seeing that the judges weren't happy, he pleaded with them and said that he had another song prepared — Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." As fans who watch American Idol know, that is the song that Fox ended up airing to viewers.
Right away, Paula, Randy, and Kara were impressed with Adam's rendition of the rock ballad. Simon said he loved his vocals, but worried that he was "too theatrical" — the same worry Adam had before walking into the audition. Within minutes though, he got all "yes" votes from the panel, and was sent to the next round in Hollywood.
Around the same time, Brian May first got wind of Adam's talent.
Within days of Adam's audition being aired to the world, Queen's lead guitarist, Brian May, saw the Idol hopeful's performance on social media. As he wrote about in his book Queen in 3-D, Brian began getting endless messages about "this incredible guy on American Idol who has sung one of your songs." After going to YouTube to see what everyone was talking about, he was instantly intrigued.
"It was evident that he was something completely out of the ordinary," the musician wrote. "And into my inbox came a deluge of people saying, 'You must get together with this guy; he is the natural successor to Freddie; he is the guy you should be touring with.'”
As Adam got further and further along in the competition, American Idol reached out to Brian and his fellow Queen bandmate Roger Taylor to see if they'd be down to perform with the two remaining contestants — Kris Allen and Adam – in the finale. While the rockers loved playing with both Idol contestants, Brian noted that they felt a deeper connection to Adam.
"It was really blindingly obvious that there was a chemistry already between us and Adam. It just happened completely naturally and made us all smile," Brian said.
After the show ended in 2009 (Adam came in second to Kris), the two crossed paths again at the MTV Europe Awards show in Belfast, Ireland. From there, Adam really became a part of the Queen family and began performing various gigs with them. And when the stars finally aligned for both of their schedules, Queen and Adam began officially touring together in 2014 — and they've been on the road ever since.
Today, it's crazy to think what would've happened if Adam hadn't auditioned for American Idol. But it's even crazier to think what wouldn't have happened if he hadn't sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" for it.
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