Queen drummer Roger Taylor opened up about a pivotal moment from the band’s early touring days in a candid interview. He revealed that Mott The Hoople frontman Ian Hunter once invited him to join a new band together.
Taylor recalled the close bond Queen formed with Mott The Hoople while supporting them on tour in the UK and US during 1973 and 1974. He disclosed a proposal that came from that friendship.
An interviewer asked Taylor to share something he had never told an interviewer before, and he responded with the story behind the offer.
“Touring with Mott The Hoople was very special for us, because they were great and we really got on,” Taylor said. “Every night we used to sing backing, unbeknownst to the audience, to All The Young Dudes.”
He then went on to describe how the tour led to an unexpected proposition from Hunter.
“After that touring [Mott frontman] Ian Hunter asked me over to his house and said he was thinking of starting a new band,” Taylor continued. “It would have been Hunter Ronson Taylor. I was very flattered, but I just said, I’m sorry, I love my band, so it never happened.”
Taylor ultimately chose to remain with Queen. That decision kept the band’s classic lineup intact as it rose to global prominence.
The proposed lineup carried significant weight in rock circles, largely because of the guitarist Hunter had in mind for the project.
Mick Ronson was the “Ronson” behind the Hunter Ronson Taylor idea. His résumé made him one of the most in-demand guitarists in Britain at the time. Ronson had already earned his reputation as David Bowie’s lead guitarist in the Spiders From Mars, playing on five of Bowie’s studio albums. He later paired up with Hunter as his most frequent collaborator, a partnership that lasted until Ronson’s death in 1993.
Ronson’s connection to Mott The Hoople ran deep as well. He co-produced the band’s breakthrough single “All The Young Dudes” alongside Bowie in 1972. He later joined Mott The Hoople outright as a full member before that lineup dissolved.
The tours that sparked Hunter’s offer were themselves a defining chapter for Queen. The band spent late 1973 opening for Mott The Hoople across the UK in support of their self-titled debut album. They returned in the spring of 1974 for a US run promoting Queen II, marking Queen’s first live performances in America.
That US leg included a run of shows at New York’s Uris Theatre on Broadway and Queen’s American live debut in Denver. The exposure helped establish the young band well beyond its UK fanbase in the months before Taylor turned down Hunter’s offer.
