If you answered “nobody,” you’d be right. And Rodgers, along with Brian may and Roger Taylor, have wisely avoided comparison with the flamboyant former frontman, instead opting to let Rodgers be Rodgers.

The show has been well received in the U.K. and Europe, filling up large venues such as the Manchester Evening News Arena in England and garnering strong reviews there.

American fans will have a chance to judge for themselves, as Queen + Paul Rodgers has inked in shows October 16th at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., and L.A.’s Hollywood Bowl October 22nd.

Tickets go on sale for the East Coast gig at 10 a.m. July 30th, and the Hollywood Bowl show the same time the next day.

It’s been almost 25 years since Queen’s last U.S. tour – a 30-city romp of arenas and sheds in 1982. The band stole the show at London’s Live Aid concert in 1985 and played in front of some 350,000 fans at Brasilia’s Rock in Rio Festival the same year. Mercury was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and died in 1991.

Taylor thinks the new incarnation of his band would earn the Mercury seal of approval.

“Paul is one of the people who’s influenced so many of the singers out there at the moment, and Freddie was a great fan of his,” Taylor said.

“I had always hoped we would tour again, and I’m thrilled we’re doing it.”