What: Paul Rodgers (opening act The Flu)

Where: Royal Theatre

When: Sunday, 7: 30 p.m.

Tickets: $68 to $107 (250-386 -6121)

Deep down, he's always been a soul man.

This year Paul Rodgers - long admired as one of rock 'n' roll's most righteous belters - intends to seal the deal.

The 62-year-old performs at the Royal Theatre Sunday with his backup band. Rodgers earned international fame as frontman for such bands as Free, Bad Company, The Firm and - more recently - Queen (filling in for the late Freddie Mercury).

The British-born singer, who lives in White Rock, says he's in the midst of doing a Stax-style soul album with guitarist Steve Cropper. Recording such a disc is a long-held ambition, Rodgers said.

Cropper became legendary as lead guitarist for Booker T and the MGs. They were house band for Stax Records, the storied Memphis label that produced such artists as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, and Eddie Floyd. Recently, through a mutual friend, Cropper asked Rodgers if he would sing on a demo song.

That led to the pair cowriting five original tunes, said Cynthia Kereluk, Rodgers's wife and business manager.

Rodgers, interviewed from White Rock, says he and Cropper hope do a CD tribute to Stax Records, with recording starting as early as May. He'd like to cut it using vintage recording equipment at Royal Studios in Memphis, home to historic soul sessions by Al Green, Chuck Berry and Solomon Burke.

"Those [soul singers] will never know what they did to me. When I was 13 and 14, I heard Respect and A Change is Gonna Come and You Don't Miss Your Water," Rodgers said.

He plans to assemble a core band with Cropper and invite "as many as possible" of the people affiliated with Stax to perform as guest artists.

"Right now it's wide open," Rodgers said. "We're just collecting the songs together."

Rodgers is one of rock's more successful artists. Bands he has been involved with are estimated to have sold more than 125 million albums globally. Rodgers's distinctively raspy vocals are a staple of classic rock radio, heard on such tracks as All Right Now by Free and Bad Company's Feel Like Makin' Love and Can't Get Enough.

The singer promises to reprise all the big hits when he plays Victoria, backed by a band of White Rock musicians.

"I like to see a happy crowd and I think people like to hear the things you're well known for," Rodgers said.

He recorded and toured with Queen from 2004 to 2009, with the act billing itself as Queen and Paul Rodgers. While the collaboration led to a 2008 studio album, The Cosmos Rocks, Rodgers said he won't perform Queen songs this weekend because "I don't really feel their material represents myself."

Last year Rodgers, who has lived in Canada for 15 years, became a Canadian citizen (he even sang O Canada at the swearing-in ceremony). He married Kereluk, a former Miss Canada, in 2007. The couple divide their time between White Rock and a Christmas-tree farm overlooking a lake in the Okanagan Valley.

"We don't really sell [the trees] to be honest," Rodgers said. "But it creates a wonderful woods to walk through."

He likes White Rock. And it seems he enjoys a degree of anonymity in his adopted hometown.

One day, Rodgers was walking along the beach when he heard a man playing guitar. The musician sang a Bad Company song, either Feel Like Makin' Love or Shooting Star (Rodgers cannot remember which).

"He was doin' pretty good, you know. I said to my wife, 'I'm gonna do this.' She said, 'What are you doing?' I sneaked up behind him. And when he came up to the chorus, I joined in. He sort of half turned around and said, 'Hey, you're pretty good.'

"I said, 'Thanks, man,' " said Rodgers, laughing.

The vocalist says he long ago abandoned the hedonistic rock-star lifestyle he led in the 1970s. Rodgers exercises regularly (cycling, walking, lifting weights). He takes care of his throat by sipping herbal tea and, if necessary, gargling with salt water.

He still loves to sing.

"It's always very exciting for me to perform," Rodgers said. "I think that's why I do it. As soon as it stops being exciting, that's when I'll hang up my rock 'n' roll shoes."

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