Brian May
The Queen guitarist talks to us about solo albums, astronomy, recording with Axl, hanging out with EVH, and how his band has gone on to have the most unexpected second chapter.
Few bands have had a second act quite like Queen’s. The idea of continuing without Freddie Mercury was unthinkable back when Classic Rock began, not least to guitarist Brian May. Yet since relaunching in 2003 with former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, then later Adam Lambert, the band are as big as they were first time around. “I’d say more so,” May tells us now. “It’s incredible.” Queen’s 21st-century resurrection has been burnished by the hugely popular We Will Rock You stage show and the equally blockbusting Bohemian Rhapsody biopic starring Rami Malek as Mercury and Gwilym Lee as May – which won four Academy Awards, the most at the 91st ceremony – as well as string of megasuccessful tours that have shown Lambert to be the literal and metaphorical inheritor of Mercury’s crown.
May’s own extra-curricular activities have been varied and unexpected, from returning to his first love of astrophysics to becoming the scourge of badger cullers, fox hunters and politicians alike. It may have limited his musical output over recent years – he hasn’t released a solo studio record since Another World
in 1998 – but the legendary guitarist tells Classic Rock
that he wouldn’t change a thing.
You were interviewed for the very first issue of Classic
Rock, in 1998. What were you up to back then?
I’d embarked on the voyage of my second solo album. It had begun with me revisiting all these songs that started me off on this road in the first place – Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Mott The Hoople along the way – but it became something different. And then there was all this emotional upheaval that I was going through at the time, which is just the way I seem to be built. It’s quite a varied record, but it encompasses all that I was at the time. All the external things fused with the internal things, and it all gets very complicated.
“Roger and I were convinced it would be impossible to carry on without Freddie.”
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who plays on Cyborg on that album, has been one of Queen’s biggest cheerleaders for the past twenty-four years. Where did you first meet him?
I met him very briefly when he was touring with Alanis Morrissette, and he said he was a massive Queen fan. I didn’t take it that seriously. But then he and [Foos guitarist] Pat Smear presented Roger [Taylor, Queen drummer] and I with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Kerrang! awards, which is when I realised those two guys had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Queen. I love it that they pay us such huge compliments, it’s a real link with people who are in a different place in the river of rock. Plus it’s good for our image [laughs].
Back in 1998, did you think Queen were done and dusted, or did you have a secret master plan to basically become one of the biggest rock bands of the twenty-first century?
Oh, we thought it was over. Roger and I were convinced it would be impossible to carry on. As soon as we lost Freddie, the spirit was gone. We didn’t even have the desire, to be honest. Made In Heaven was supposed to be the final chapter, then we both plugged into our solo work. And then completely by accident we met Paul Rodgers, and we thought: “Maybe let’s work with this guy who was a hero to us, and see what happens.”
How do you look back on that period now? Does the album you made together, The Cosmos Rocks, deserve reappraisal?
I am proud of that album. I think it has some really good stuff and it is underestimated. We had fun and Paul had fun. It was great. Not just him flexing his muscles on the Queen material, but also us playing All Right Now and his songs. I loved going around the world playing that stuff, boys with a new kind of toy. It was great for a while, then eventually it ran its course, and it was obvious that Paul needed to get back to his own career. But we parted on very good terms and keep in touch.
And then of course there’s Adam Lambert, who Queen are with now. If he hadn’t entered your lives, would Queen be big as they are today?
I can’t see that it would have worked with anybody else. He’s a voice in a billion and a presence in a billion; the showmanship, the personality, the range, his ability to reinterpret stuff . Plus he’s nice person to have around. He’s a gift from God.
People never filmed shows on smartphones back in the band’s original heyday. How do you feel about people doing that now? It’s a strange thing, looking out at the audience and they’re not looking back at you, they’re looking at their phones. Some of them have even got their back to you, taking selfies with me behind them. It’s not the greatest inspiration. But it’s life. I don’t lose sleep over it. Things change over the years, and that’s one of the things.
Did you watch The Beatles documentary, Get Back?
I did. It was very close to home for us, because they were the kind of situations we very often found ourselves in. I found the first episode quite difficult, because they’re not really getting on and the creative juices aren’t flowing very well. But the second episode is a lot nicer to watch. It’s great to see George Harrison come into his own. And there are moments of pure magic, like John Lennon singing the song that has the melody of Jealous Guy but with completely different lyrics. That knocked me sideways.