Roger Meddows Taylor (born 26 July 1949) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He achieved international fame as the drummer and backing vocalist for the rock band Queen. As a drummer, Taylor was recognised early in his career for his unique sound and was voted the eighth-greatest drummer in classic rock music history in a listener poll conducted by Planet Rock in 2005. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 as a member of Queen.
As a songwriter, Taylor composed at least one track on every Queen album, and often sang lead vocals on his own compositions. He wrote or co-wrote three UK number ones ("These Are the Days of Our Lives", "Innuendo" and "Under Pressure") and wrote a further five major hits ("Radio Ga Ga", "A Kind of Magic", "Heaven for Everyone", "Breakthru" and "The Invisible Man"). He has collaborated with such artists as Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Phil Collins, Genesis, Jimmy Nail, Kansas, Elton John, Gary Numan, Shakin' Stevens, Foo Fighters, Al Stewart, Steve Vai, Yoshiki, Cyndi Almouzni and Bon Jovi. As a producer, he has produced albums by Virginia Wolf, Jimmy Nail and Magnum.
As a singer, Taylor possesses a countertenor vocal range. During the 1980s, in addition to his work with Queen, he formed a parallel band known as the Cross, in which he was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist. During the early 1980s, Taylor was also a panellist on the UK quiz show Pop Quiz, hosted by Mike Read. In 2014, he appeared in Brian Pern as himself.
He is the father of The Darkness' drummer Rufus Tiger Taylor.
Taylor was born on 26 July 1949 at West Norfolk and Lynn Hospital in King's Lynn, Norfolk. The new maternity ward was opened by Princess Elizabeth, the future queen Elizabeth II. During her visit she was introduced to 16 new mothers including Winifred Taylor, his mother. Taylor first lived at 87 High Street in King's Lynn and later moved to Beulah Street in the town. Taylor's first school was Rosebery Avenue school. Taylor moved to Truro, Cornwall, in south west England, with his mother Winifred, father Michael and younger sister Clare. When he was seven years old, he and some friends formed his first band, the Bubblingover Boys, in which he played the ukulele. He attended Bosvigo School and Truro Cathedral School; at the age of 13, he joined Truro School as a day boy.
At the age of 15, Taylor became a member of Johnny Quale and the Reactions, a semi-professional rock band made up mainly of boys from Truro School. Taylor had originally learned guitar, but became a drummer when he realised he had a more natural aptitude for it. Taylor taught himself to tune his drums, inspired by Keith Moon of the Who because of the "great drum sounds" on the early Who records. Another key influence on Taylor was Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who Taylor stated was his early role model.
In 1967, Taylor went to London to study dentistry at the London Hospital Medical College, but he became bored with it and switched to biology, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree at East London Polytechnic.
Taylor met Brian May and Tim Staffell in 1968 after a friend saw an advert for a drummer on a noticeboard at Imperial College. Smile included May on lead guitar, Staffell on lead vocals and bass, and later Taylor on drums. The band lasted for two years before Staffell departed to join Humpy Bong, leaving the band with a catalogue of nine songs.
Smile reunited for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's band the Cross were headliners and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter".
In 1969, Taylor was working with Freddie Mercury at Kensington Market in London (they were sharing a flat at around the same time). Around September 18, 1970, Taylor and Mercury closed their market stall to honor the death of Jimi Hendrix. Mercury, then known as Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara, was a fan of Smile. The band split up in 1970. In the same year, Taylor turned down the chance to become drummer for Genesis, which led to Phil Collins joining instead. Bulsara convinced the remaining two members of Smile to continue and he eventually joined the band, which he renamed Queen. In 1971, they recruited bassist John Deacon, before going on to release their self-titled debut album in 1973. Taylor is the third most credited songwriter for the band, usually contributing one or two tracks per album.
Taylor has had a productive solo career, releasing six albums. His first single was "(I Wanna) Testify" in 1977, recorded during Queen's sessions for the News of the World album. The A-side, although a cover of the Parliaments song of the same name, was completely different from the original. The B-side was a self-penned song "Turn on the TV".
Taylor's first solo album, released in 1981, was Fun in Space, on which he performed all vocals and played all instruments aside from about half of the keyboards, which were contributed by engineer David Richards. With Queen still touring heavily and recording at the time of release, Taylor was unable to promote the album to its fullest extent, only appearing on some European TV shows to promote the single, "Future Management", including Top of the Pops. A second single from the album was titled "My Country". The only US single released from the album was "Let's Get Crazy".
Taylor's next solo venture, Strange Frontier, came in June 1984. The three singles from the album were the title track, "Beautiful Dreams" (in Portugal only) and "Man on Fire", the latter becoming a live favourite for him in later years. No attempts to promote the singles were made since Queen was touring to promote The Works, with Taylor not even performing on any TV shows. Strange Frontier included guest appearances by bandmates Freddie Mercury, Brian May and John Deacon. Mercury sang backing vocals on "Killing Time", Deacon remixed the B-side "I Cry For You" and Rick Parfitt co-wrote and played on "It's An Illusion". David Richards, Queen's engineer and producer at the time, also co-wrote two of the tracks. The album includes covers of Bruce Springsteen's "Racing in the Street" and Bob Dylan's "Masters of War".
In 1986, Taylor co-produced Vigilante, the sixth studio album by rock band Magnum. After Queen finished their 1986 Magic Tour, Taylor started a new band, the Cross, which released three albums over their six years of existence. In 1993, the band split up, after performing one final gig at the Gosport Festival.
In 1994, Taylor worked with Yoshiki, drummer and pianist of X Japan and released the song "Foreign Sand" and a reworking of the Cross's "Final Destination". The album Happiness? was "Dedicated to the tasmanian tiger – thylacinus cynocephalus, but most especially... for Freddie". "Nazis 1994" from this album became Taylor's first hit single in England and was followed by two other top 40 UK hits, "Happiness" and "Foreign Sand".
In 1998, Taylor released his fourth solo album Electric Fire. Taylor also performed one of the first Internet-gigs – for which he got a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records. On 11 November 2013, Taylor released the album Fun on Earth, On the same day, Taylor released his compilation album The Lot, which includes all of his work outside of Queen.
The Cross were a side project of Taylor's that existed from 1987 to 1993 and released three albums. While still the drummer for Queen, Taylor fronted the Cross as rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist. On their debut release, the Cross incorporated dance influences, which they dropped on their remaining two albums.
Taylor has appeared along with May for various other events and promotions, including Queen's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and the "Party at the Palace" in 2002, celebrating the golden jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. In 2004, Taylor, May, and Mike Dixon received the Helpmann Award in Australia for Best Music Direction for the musical We Will Rock You. At the Live Earth concert held at Wembley Stadium in 2007, Taylor opened the show with Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers.