Queen guitarist Brian May gave Lambert's fans a thrill when he told the Rolling Stone magazine last Friday that the theatre actor could be the next Freddie Mercury, the band's late frontman.

Queen, who performed with Lambert at last week's Idol finale, recently ended a four-year partnership with Paul Rodgers, the former singer of the bands Free and Bad Company.

May said: 'Among all that furore, there wasn't really a quiet moment to talk. But (drummer Roger Taylor) and I are definitely hoping to have a meaningful conversation with him at some point.

'It's not like we, as Queen, would rush into coalescing with another singer just like that. It isn't that easy. But I'd certainly like to work with Adam. That is one amazing instrument he has there.'

But rocker Gene Simmons of Kiss, who also performed with Lambert, was less effusive.

'Respectfully, I don't think Adam is a rock singer,' he wrote on his website. 'His voice doesn't seem to have a 'rock quality'. '

He clarified: 'Adam is a great singer. He would be great in Queen. Like Freddie Mercury. But Mercury wouldn't work in the Stones or Kiss. Nor would Mick Jagger work in Queen. Got it?'

Meanwhile, 2003's Idol runner-up Clay Aiken has apologised for what he said was his 'colourful choice of words' when he called Lambert's cover of Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire 'contrived, awful and slightly frightening' and that listening to it, he 'thought my ears would bleed'.

He had blasted Lambert last Thursday on his subscription-only message board when asked by a fan about the past Idol season.

But last Friday, on his blog, he said: 'I obviously meant it as a colourful statement to imply that I did not enjoy what I heard.'