QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS: New Album Details Revealed

QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS will release their new album, "The Cosmos Rocks", in Europe on September 15 and the U.S./Canada on October 14 via EMI. A single, "C-lebrity", will precede the album on September 8.

"C-lebrity" was written and produced by Brian May, Paul Rodgers and Roger Taylor.

Many of QUEEN's best-known songs have been written in humor, and "C-lebrity" follows in this pattern; it is a comment on the celebrity-driven times in which we live where the myriad of reality-based TV shows are producing a generation of C-lebrities

The track received its first airing as an exclusive on TV's "Al Murray's Happy Hour", since when, according to Brian May, "we went back in and roughed up the studio version a bit. I think it gives a fair idea of the kind of energy on the album."

Commented drummer Roger Taylor: "'C-lebrity' is really a comment on the current concept of fame — success and all that goes with it. Getting your face on TV is enough — talent doesn't really enter into the equation. 'Celebrity' is an overused and devalued word today."

Vocalist Paul Rodgers added: "I see the song as Roger's take on the increasing emphasis on fame for its own sake. It's quite ironic that Andy Warhol's statement that everyone will have fifteen minutes of fame is becoming something of a reality, although it may be down to fifteen seconds in today's world of instant communication."

"The Cosmos Rocks" album, produced and performed by Brian May, Paul Rodgers and Roger Taylor, and written by QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS, featuring 13-all new songs, is out to coincide with the mid-September start of the European tour. It marks the first QUEEN album of new material since 1995.

"The Cosmos Rocks" track listing:

01. Cosmos Rockin'
02. Time To Shine
03. Still Burnin'
04. Small
05. Warboys
06. We Believe
07. Call Me
08. Voodoo
09. Some Things That Glitter
10. C-lebrity
11. Through The Night
12. Say It's Not True
13. Surf's Up . . . School's Out!
14. (small reprise)

A special edition CD/DVD featuring a bonus disc containing a recording of QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS at Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo on October 27, 2005 will also be made available.

The DVD track listing is as follows:

01. Reaching Out (Hill / Black)
02. Tie Your Mother Down (May)
03. Fat Bottomed Girls (May)
04. Another One Bites The Dust (Deacon)
05. Fire And Water (Rodgers / Fraser)
06. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Mercury)
07. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together) (May)
08. These Are The Days Of Our Lives (Queen)
09. Radio Ga Ga (Taylor)
10. Can't Get Enough (Ralphs)
11. I Was Born To Love You (Mercury)
12. All Right Now (Rodgers / Fraser)
13. We Will Rock You (May)
14. We Are The Champions (Mercury)
15. God Save The Queen (Trad. Arr. May)

Video footage of QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS performing a new song, "C-lebrity", on the April 4, 2008 edition of the UK's ITV "Al Murray's Happy Hour" can be viewed below.

QUEEN's last studio album was "Made In Heaven", released in November 1995 and containing the last recordings with Freddie. The LP became the band's biggest selling studio album, with world sales in excess of 20 million.