The band will perform March 19 in South Africa at Fancourt for the Nelson Mandela 46664 AIDS Awareness Concert.

The show will open a tour that travels through England and Europe in the spring and North America in the fall.

Rodgers, from the bands Free and Bad Company, impressed the remaining members of Queen when he joined them for several performances this year.

Rodgers and Queen guitarist Brian May performed Free’s hit “All Right Now” at a concert in London to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar earlier this year.

May and Queen drummer Roger Taylor then asked Rodgers to stand in for singer Freddy Mercury, who died in 1991, when the band was featured on a British TV channel’s music hall of fame program.

In a note on his Web site, May said there had been “amazing chemistry” when he played alongside Rodgers, adding: “It seems blindingly obvious that there was something happening here.”

Right now, it doesn’t look like bassist John Deacon, the other member of the band, will join the tour.