SOUND OUT I don’t have any regrets. But mistakes? I’ve made loads

Rick Wakeman reveals how his new record was inspired by his late collaborator David Bowie and tells

why he sought permission from Brian May to cover Queen’s most iconic hit

“I told him I wanted to send it for him to have a listen, because if he didn’t like it, if he thought it was detrimental to Freddie, then I’d pull it,” he says.

Luckily for Rick, May got back to him within half an hour, full of praise for his take on Bohemian Rhapsody, but with one suggestion: that he add a “tiny touch of acoustic guitar” at the end.

“He was absolutely right,” Rick concedes. “I’d never thought of doing that.”

He adds: “May did this fantastic little cameo spot. You just don’t expect it and it lights up the whole piece.

“That really made it for me. I thought, this is something I was meant to do and it was meant to be.”

The album also includes two new additions, Rocky (The Legacy) and Cyril Wolverine, both inspired by his work as a patron of Animals Asia and Moon Bears.

“We save these wonderful bears from the horrendous bear bile farming in China,” he elaborates.

Rocky, Rick reveals, was a bear who had been so horrendously treated that, even with the best care, she died.

And Cyril Wolverine was a bear owned by Rick and his wife, who died from kidney and liver cancer after being “appallingly treated from a young age”, before he could make it to a sanctuary in Chengdu, China.

“I sat in my music room and I put three pictures of Cyril on the stand, then I wrote the piece of music for him while doing nothing but having those pictures in front of me,” he says.

Along with his tales of bears, Bowie and Bohemian Rhapsody, Rick is refreshingly honest about himself.

He harks back to his past and how it has shaped the man and musician he is today, while also looking ahead to the future.

“I don’t have any regrets. But mistakes? Yeah, I’ve made loads,” he says lightheartedly, although failing to mention any particular moment from throughout his 50-year career.

He continues: “But if you get something wrong, then you do your best to turn it right.

“Of course I’ve made mistakes and got lots of things wrong, but if anything had been different, I wouldn’t be here doing this interview right now.

“I’m not great at looking back and going, ‘Oh, I wish I hadn’t done that’.

“I’m much more interested in what I’m going to do tomorrow, next month, next year, and the year after that.”

He adds, determinedly: “I can’t retire. I wouldn’t dream of it!”