PAUL RODGERS To Spend 2009 Writing New Material

Apart from a brief set of summer dates with BAD COMPANY, Paul Rodgers says that he plans on spending the rest of 2009 at home relaxing and working on solo material. "Frankly, I have a fantastic happy home (laughs) and I overlook the lake," he tells The Pulse of Radio. "And I actually want to spend some more time creating the music. Y'know, one of my dreams was always to have a piano — a room with a piano overlooking the ocean or a lake. Well, I have that and I'd like to spend some time on it if I may, please. So that's what I plan to do this year."

Rodgers recently announced that he has parted ways with Brian May and Roger Taylor of QUEEN, ending their five-year association. Rumors began spreading when after last year's European dates behind their first studio album together, "The Cosmos Rocks", the band failed to announce any North American dates. Rodgers told Billboard, "At this point we're gonna sit back from this. My arrangement with (May and Taylor) was similar to my arrangement with Jimmy Page in THE FIRM in that it was never meant to be a permanent arrangement."

Rodgers, who'll be reuniting with BAD COMPANY this summer for a string of dates, added that he was ultimately proud of his association with QUEEN, saying, "I think we made a huge success of it, actually. We did two world tours and a couple of live recordings, and . . . made a studio album which was pretty historical for (them) because they hadn't really gone in the studio with anybody and recorded something like that for a very long time. So it was quite an achievement, I think."

He went on to say, "There were some fantastic emails we received that almost had me in tears . . . There were a lot of younger people who had given up the idea they'd ever see anything like QUEEN live again, and there it was, full-on. When Brian first called up and said, 'Do you fancy a couple dates, just for fun, in Europe, I said 'great' — and it turned into so much more than that."

Rodgers explained that he drew the line this summer when BAD COMPANY suggested that the band hit the road for longer than their 10-date reunion trek. "They did sort of want a sort of full on four-month tour," he said. "And I said, I'd rather keep it — I just came off a massive QUEEN tour, and to cut a long story short, I like to keep my touring brief. Y'know, short and sweet and I learned that lesson many years ago. And I went out with QUEEN for three or four months, and I thought (laughs),"Yeah, this is the last time I go out for three or four months.' I'm gonna go out and keep it short and sweet, so that's what we're doing here."

BAD COMPANY with special guests the DOOBIE BROTHERS kick off their summer dates on June 19 in Atlanta at Chastain Park Amphitheatre.

On August 8, the band will release their new concert DVD, "Bad Company - Hard Rock Live", which will be also be available exclusively at shows during the concert run. Prior to their one performance in 2008, the band had not performed together in nearly a decade.