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Say Its Not True - RT Sky Interview

02/12/07
Say Its Not True - RT Sky Interview

Roger gave another interview this weekend about the new Queen track ‘Say It’s Not True’.

Click HERE to watch the video of ‘Say It’s Not True’ (edited back stage at 46664 Jo’burg by Jan Potgieter).

ADAM BOULTON: Well this weekend, it was World AIDS Day, and Queen have teamed up with the former Free singer, Paul Rodgers, to release a song to raise awareness of the disease. In a moment I’ll be speaking to Queen’s drummer, Roger Taylor, who wrote that song. First, let’s listen to it “Say It Isn’t [sic] True” by Queen and Paul Rodgers.

AB:That’s “Say It’s Not True”, the new song from Queen and Paul Rodgers. Difficult subject to write about?

ROGER TAYLOR:Yes. The song was written about 3 or 4 years ago for Mandela and for his AIDS campaign. It is a difficult subject and it’s really written in the first person, from the… It’s about receiving the letter and finding our you’re positive – HIV positive – and the sort of terrible shock, and emotion and effect it has on your life, and you know that was probably the only way I felt I could deal with it, you know. We all know it’s a terrible thing.

AB: But it’s something you’ve seen in your own life.

RT: Absolutely. I mean, we connected very directly to it after losing Freddie and, you know, we set up a charity, Mercury Phoenix Trust is still going, so we still do feel allied to the cause, that cause, and Mandela’s fighting.

AB: This song though is not directly a fund raising song, or you’ve given all the profits from it…

RT: Yes, it’s a free download actually and it just, everything fitted and we re-worked the song with Paul, and we felt it was very sort or apposite and, you know, we’re not in Johannesburg for the World AIDS Day Concert, but that was our contribution.

AB: And do you feel AIDS has been very much focussed – we saw the Prime Minister yesterday with his Red Ribbon – d’you feel that the global response is sufficient at the moment to AIDS or not?

RT: I don’t know. I really think it’s about – it is about awareness and education really. South Africa, I think, has one of the greatest problems of any country, almost one in four now, and that’s a problem; that’s a major problem, it really is. They’ve had a lot of misinformation in that country – very bad, ill-informed information from people in high places and, you know, can’t be stressed enough.

AB: Yes. I mean the difficulty is, as you say, that Nelson Mandela’s made it very clear that he basically accepts the orthodox assessment of the health dangers in HIV, but his successor, President Mbeki, has a rather different view.

RT: He’s being very reticent about what really are the realities of this virus, you know.

AB: What do you think are, you know, the things which people should do to protect themselves?

RT:Well, they should use condoms and no matter what anybody says, I mean. I mean I’m not an expert in this, but just as a member of the public has had contact, most people will know somebody, I am sure, who, if they haven’t got it, will have it or maybe died of it, and it’s just something that we should be aware of, you know, without hopefully not preaching and being boring by doing so.

AB: And how, obviously, you know, you lost Freddie Mercury from the band.

RT: Yeah.

AB: And many people saw that as being almost the end of Queen, but you’ve gradually…

RT: I think

AB:...managed to rebuild, so are you sort of back

RT: Yes

AB: ... to full strength? Obviously you’ll never replace Freddie, though.

RT: No , he’s irreplaceable, but, you know, life moves on. We thought it would be the end of Queen, then by pure fortuitous circumstance really, we sort of teamed up with Paul Rodgers, who had always been a great favourite of ours, and particularly Freddie’s. And we’ve been in the studio and it’s just kind of magical chemistry, and it’s really been a reinvention of our sort of joy in music, I think. We’re still slaving away over…

AB: What, working towards a new album?

RT: Yeah. And it’s really wonderful to be actually doing new stuff for the first time in… really since Freddie died, yeah. Completely new material, so.

AB: And how do, you wrote that song, you wrote Radio Ga Ga, I mean how does the composition process. dynamic work.

RT:(laughs) I wish I knew. If I could sort of distill it into a few words. It really is sort of getting the right idea at the right moment and then convincing the others that it’s a good idea to go through with it, and then we work very much as a team. You know, when Brian comes in and puts his magic all over it, and Paul Rodgers is the most inspiring singer to work with. He’s absolutely phenomenal.

AB: And you’re gonna go back on the road in …?

RT: Well I think so. I mean it all looks so inevitably coming towards that, although I didn’t come on this programme to…

AB: ... talk about that.

RT: If that happens, you know. See what happens with Led Zeppelin.

AB: It does fascinate me how people who, who know, icons such as yourself don’t, what is it, don’t want to stay away. Is that it, or is there nothing to beat?

RT: Well I think you just sort of realise – you get to an age and then you suddenly realise, ‘Oh dear, that is what I do,’ you know, so let’s not pretend it isn’t. And I think that’s what we’re good at, and so you know, are we, you know, can we get away with this one more time, or what? Do we feel it’s gonna be really valid and a fantastic experience and the answer was, yes, you know. We do and it’s just a joy to be sort of, doing it again.

AB: And for you, I mean Queen in particular, it always was live which was right at the heart.

RT: Well we did love appearing live. We actually did enjoy our touring and we had, you know, the greatest front man, and you know live music I think is very much back and alive and well. And I saw the Foo Fighters the other night and they were spectacular.

AB: And of course, as you say, this song of yours for World AIDS Day is a giveaway. I mean, that’s the other fact, isn’t it – that you don’t make so much money out of recordings anymore?

RT: Well no, I think that’s in general probably true with the downloading now, but this one just fitted. It was just right. You know it’s a song that we just re-worked and Paul had the idea, you know, Why don’t we just put it out, you know, and we weren’t gonna be at the concert so. Yeah, and you know, it was just a way of …

AB: But painful, I suppose, to revisit some of those memories.

RT: Yes, I suppose we’ve sort of lived with the realities of what happened with Freddie, etc, for so long, and you know it’s always there, but you know, it took about 5 years to get over the real hard fact.

AB: And now – if it was all happening now – it’s something which might have been treatable for someone who….

RT:Tragically yes. I mean I think if it had been 2 or 3 years later, he possibly would have been here now with us today, so, you know, it’s very important that the drugs are made available and cheaper, I suppose. They’re expensive drugs.

AB: Well so, I mean obviously, some of the drug companies have given free retro virals, but I think it’s also the case that it’s in Africa certainly, it’s only a minority of people who have access to the drugs.

RT:Yes sadly I think that’s true and I think that’s really a lot of the point. A lot of thrust of Mandela’s message is really, is to get more awareness, treatment and education, but get those anti retro virals.

AB: Roger Taylor, thank you very much indeed. Good luck with the AIDS campaign and I’m sure everyone will be looking to see what Queen does next. Thank you.

RT: Thank you very much.

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