In a recent conversation with Ultimate Classic Rock, the Darkness vocalist Justin Hawkins said that he found it fair to be referred to as ‘the straight Queen’ rather than ‘gay AC/DC’ while discussing his band’s musical identity.
The singer first recalled a journalist’s comment about the Darkness ‘sounding similar’ to Queen and AC/DC, saying:
“It [the Darkness sounding similar] was noticed by a journalist called Simon Price. He said, ‘A lot of people are dismissing the Darkness as the gay AC/DC. But they’re not. They’re the straight Queen.’ And we were all, ‘OK, that’s fair enough.”
Talking about the similarity of their music to the two cult bands, the frontman explained:
“I think that sort of developed because when we first started off, we were a five-piece, and then in 2001, we became a four-piece, and I was playing more guitar.”
He then continued by describing his guitar-playing technique and influences:
“My particular sort of vibrato style is quite similar to Brian May’s, and the sort of licks I play are very similar to Angus Young. So the way I play guitar is probably a direct cross between those two guys.”
When asked which other bands had inspired the Darkness’ stage presence and performance style in a chat with SF Weekly in 2015, Hawkins again included Queen in his answer, expressing:
“Well, for me, the influences in that respect are Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Queen. I don’t think anybody has really ever done it better. When we were touring with Def Leppard, we learned a hell of a lot about how to use space on a bigger stage. You learn all the time, really, but if you want a shortcut to how to make the perfect rockstar, just look at anything Queen did in the ’70s and early ’80s and anything AC/DC did… ever [Laughs].”
You can also see Justin’s favorite Queen and AC/DC albums here and here.
