Roger Taylor
Roger Meddows Taylor (born 26 July 1949) is an English musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the drummer of the rock band Queen, but has also served as songwriter and occasional lead vocalist. As a drummer, he was recognised early in his career for his unique sound. He has since been acclaimed by Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins as one of the most influential rock drummers of the 1970s and 1980s, as well as being voted by radio listeners as the eighth-greatest drummer in classic rock music history in a poll conducted by Planet Rock in 2005.
As a songwriter, Taylor contributed songs to the band’s albums from the very beginning, composing at least one track on every album, and often singing lead vocals on his own compositions. He wrote or co-wrote three UK number 1s (“These Are the Days of Our Lives”, “Innuendo” and “Under Pressure”) and contributed a further five major hits (“Radio Ga Ga”, “A Kind of Magic”, “Heaven for Everyone”, “Breakthru”, and “The Invisible Man”). He is also commonly known to have been the main writer on the international top-ten hit “One Vision”, although the track is credited to the whole band. He has collaborated with such artists as Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant, Phil Collins, Genesis, Jimmy Nail, 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.
In addition to his drum work, Taylor sometimes, but not always, played keyboards, guitars and bass on his own songs. 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 panelist on the popular UK quiz show Pop Quiz, hosted by Mike Read.
According to The Sunday Times Rich List he was worth £80 million or around $127 million as of 2011. In 2014, he appeared in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern as himself. Taylor is also well known for his falsetto vocal range.
