Paul Rodgers gets royal treatment in comparing Queen to Bad Company to a Led Zeppelin reunion

Rarely has Nestor been star struck by a rock star but the greatest voice in rock stopped him in his tracks at Super Bowl Arizona 2008. Free. Bad Company. The Firm. Jimmy Page. Queen. Paul Rodgers is a rock and roll god.

Nestor Aparicio interviews Paul Rodgers, discussing his career and experiences. Aparicio recalls meeting Rodgers at the 2008 Super Bowl in Arizona and his admiration for Bad Company and The Firm. Rodgers talks about touring with Queen, his solo work, and the historic Led Zeppelin reunion concert in 2007, which raised $2.3 million for music scholarships. Rodgers also mentions his admiration for American football and the parallels between the music and sports industries. The conversation highlights Rodgers’ enduring influence and his dedication to music.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Paul Rogers, Bad Company, Super Bowl Arizona, rock and roll, solo band, Queen collaboration, Led Zeppelin reunion, music scholarships, rock star, Stairway to Heaven, John Bonham, American football, rock legends, fanboy moment, YouTube channel

SPEAKERS

Paul Rodgers, Nestor Aparicio

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Nestor Aparicio  00:00

Welcome back wnst To ask in Baltimore and wnst.net you’re listening to wnst Rock week here this week, and this is going to be one of my favorites. It’s a rather short visit with one of my favorite singers who still plays and still tours around as the lead singer of the incomparable Bad Company, Paul Rogers, the guys kind of come in and out of my rock and roll circle a handful of times. I had interviewed Jimmy Page back in 1985 on the firm tour when I was at the Baltimore news American before it went out of business. And then I ran into Paul Rogers with Kenny Jones on a New York junket. I was in New York seeing the David Letterman Show, and seeing the Rembrandts on the David Letterman Show, the old David Letterman Show back at NBC. That’s probably 1991 and they had a band called the law. I don’t ever remember that band didn’t like really make it big or anything like that, but they were, you know, it was a celebrity band. And I remember meeting Paul Rogers that day. You know, I gotta tell you, this was one of those random things. This is in 2008 I’ve rarely been starstruck, especially by somebody I’ve already met chatted with before, but Paul Rogers was walking through radio row at the Super Bowl in Arizona, 2008 and I just yelled, I got to get him on the show, because he was there to do media. And I figured, you know, some people may know who he is. Some people is, some people might not, but I want to get Paul Rogers on. So I dove across. I grabbed his publicist, I grabbed him, sat him down. We were like, sort of in live time. And this is on YouTube as well, so you can go watch this one if you want to check it out on our W n s t YouTube channel. And we, of course, stream everything now on Facebook, live and on W and S TV, on our YouTube channel as well. So you can check it out. I love Paul Rogers. I you know, a lot of these interviews that you’re hearing this week are me as a fanboy in 1988 This is me as a fanboy 2008 so you know, I still listen to a lot of free a lot of bad company, a lot of Paul Rogers. I know he toured with queen. I love the firm. He did a show with the lyric back in 2015 that I thought was unbelievable, and he ripped out a little satisfaction guaranteed from the firm, which I thought was cool. But I love some bad co I love Paul Rogers, and I chased him down one time. I was star struck with Paul Rogers on radio road Super Bowl 2008 in Arizona, and this is what it sounded like, rock and roll royalties. I haven’t wanted to do much today, but here I am, Paul Rogers, three bad company, the firm. I even saw the law with Kenny Jones and Queen the night you guys played. We were ill and we couldn’t go, but I got the DVD. It must have been an amazing thing to step in for Freddie like that. Well, yeah, it was

Paul Rodgers  02:46

interesting. I’ve been working solo with my solo band, and we did, I got together with my Fauci in England, and we liked it so much. We said, Hey, let’s do some

Nestor Aparicio  02:58

home, right? Everybody’s a

Paul Rodgers  02:59

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queen fan. I know, I know it was like, somebody said it was like having a Rolls Royce sitting in the garage and not using, you know, the whole queen, the music’s a signal. It’s waiting to be played. Yeah, enjoy. That’s a great song. The first couple of things we did because we were rocking, we’re the champions. Brian said to me, how many fans are going after this queen of Paul Rodgers,

Nestor Aparicio  03:24

there it is. So what are we promoting here today? And Nils loftins, a good buddy of mine. I’m gonna get him over here. I know you’re doing the Rock and Roll legends, and you guys have done some of that stuff too, sort of talking about the fantasy rock and roll fantasy. That’s what it’s all about,

Paul Rodgers  03:38

right? Well, yeah, we’re here to really support the good Island, right? Jerry, Jerry Flynn,

Nestor Aparicio  03:45

we had Jerry by a few days ago.

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Paul Rodgers  03:50

He’s in the building, of course, and it’s all about looking after the players.

Nestor Aparicio  03:58

Are you almost American? Do you like American football? I mean, you still have the accent, but you live here. Do you live in Canada? Okay, so, you know, I mean, we played football,

Paul Rodgers  04:06

but a different kind of football every street corner. I can see the thing that I like about this pose, I can see the similarities between the music business and sport in the sense that, you know, we start out young, we can have our Murray days and be all over so quickly. And then these guys, you know, a lot of them in the sports world, he’s got a seriously injured and it’s tough. So I can relate to that. Well,

Nestor Aparicio  04:34

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rock and roll is a young man’s game in some quarters, but we look at you and you and when you turn 39 not for a while, yeah,

04:45

yeah, Ray’s got questions too. Big fan of bad company. But be honest, I really didn’t know what you look like. And when you walk in the room, it was

04:53

like, that’s a rock star. Does somebody tell you how to dress like a rock star? Look like a rock star? Cynthia de.

Nestor Aparicio  05:00

She’s Cynthia. You’ve done, well, I don’t know who that is, but he’s a rock star. Oh, man, you gotta sing some bad company songs with these do something. You know, I saw the firm many, many moons ago, and, you know, the page plant reunion thing. Were you as excited about as Zeppelin reunion as the rest of the world was when they got together, I was actually

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Paul Rodgers  05:20

they asked me to go and play and play before they went on stage. And I did, went over there, played a couple of songs. You were friends with Ahmed earlier as well. Oh, absolutely, because we were in the same record championship records, and Ahmet was a really good friend, actually. And actually it became the Led Zeppelin concert. But in fact, it was, it was really to celebrate, to raise funds for something that he was college scholarships, that for music that he was very interested in. So, yeah, it was a good thing that they did, but it was a historic occasion. It’s great to be there. I know I

Nestor Aparicio  05:56

felt the energy from this side of the pond. I want it so badly to go. You feel like they’re never going to play again. And I was so disciplined. Disappointed in his pay per view the concert in high def or DVD, or they should have at least played it somewhere where they could have sold 200,000 tickets to give me a chance to go. I was angry. I agree with

Paul Rodgers  06:13

you, that’s the way. Well, they did record this. She wants a piece of this COVID. It

06:19

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was recorded, and we did raise $2.3 million for $3.2 million

06:26

for all its so it will be DVD I’ll be able to buy. We’re going to look at our footage. And everyone has to approve their own footage,

Nestor Aparicio  06:35

but you approve yours. You saying, well that night, right?

Paul Rodgers  06:38

I’ve never heard you not seen well. Thank you. I haven’t seen it yet, but I would

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Nestor Aparicio  06:48

hope if they do, give me the swirl of the whole thing. Where were you watching the show? I mean, I was home, literally on a blog, board scenes, literally, song by song. I stayed home and I waited for the YouTube videos to show up. The next day, I was accessing the BBC to watch the highlights of it. And it was, it was on Monday night. I remember a few weeks ago.

Paul Rodgers  07:09

Well, I watched the show from different areas. I watched up in their box with with Brian and Roger, actually, and we watched there for a bit. Then we snuck out. We watched from the back of the hall. We moved around and the sound at first was a little bit, you know, it was ricocheting about the building, but it settled into a nice group. And they really did come up to every

Nestor Aparicio  07:29

expectation. When they start bumping Stairway to Heaven and catch

07:33

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me, it was over. You know, they haven’t played Stairway to Heaven since John Bond was dealing. They

Paul Rodgers  07:40

did that specifically for COVID. Actually, John Bonham. I mean, John Bonham was probably the

Nestor Aparicio  07:48

greatest rock climber,

Paul Rodgers  07:49

so Jason did well, it’s

Nestor Aparicio  07:53

really a pleasure to spend some time. And I am a huge Paul Rogers guy. I’m getting a picture with you, my brother. I will step back, grab a break. Paul Rogers, there’s all sorts of stuff going on. That’s one segment. We’ve been here 40 hours this week, and I’ve done four and a half minutes because I just had to say, you want to do this more than I do. And I’m like, Heck with me. John Elway, and he’s, I want, Paul Rogers, I want some rock and roll. Tom Petty comes down and we’ll be in a fist fight. You.