Roger TayLor Biography

 

 

Biography

Born in East Anglia, Roger Taylor moved to Truro, Cornwall, with mother Winifred, father Michael, and younger sister Clare. When he was 7 years old he formed his first band, called the Bubblingover Boys, with a couple of friends. He played the ukulele. At the age of 15 he became a member of The Reaction, a very busy semi-pro rock band formed mainly of boys from Truro School. In 1967, he went to go to London to study Dentistry. He met Brian May and Tim Staffell in 1968 after seeing an advert on a noticeboard at Imperial College, and they decided to form the band Smile, which lasted from 1968–1970. In 1969, Taylor was working with Freddie Mercury at the Kensington Market (they were living in a flat together at the time) and they formed Queen (band) in 1970 after the breakup of Smile. In 1971 they found bassist John Deacon and brought him into the group, before going on to release their first single and album in 1973.
By the time News of the World came out, Roger met his future girlfriend Dominique Beyrand. She was working for Richard Branson at the time, who was at the helm of Queen's free concert at Hyde Park. They lived together from 1980–1987, raising their two children, Felix Luther and Rory Eleanor. They decided to get married for reasons relating to Taylor's estate, to protect his children's interest in the future. At the time, Roger was seeing another girl, Debbie Leng (also seen in the 'Breakthru' video); he moved in with her a month after his marriage of convenience to Dominique. Before the death of Freddie Mercury, Roger and Debbie had their first child, Rufus Tiger, who was born in March 1991. He ended up having two more children with Debbie: Tiger Lily, who was born in 1994, and Lola Daisy May, who was born in 2000. In late 2002, Roger and Debbie decided to break up. Roger remarried on 3 October 2010, to Sarina Potgieter, girlfriend of six years.^[7].