Wales rocker works with his hero

QUEEN icon Brian May is the reason Jayce Lewis got into music.

Brian’s performance alongside the legendary Freddie Mercury at Live Aid in 1985 became seared into his young brain, fuelling a love of rock and loud guitars.

And now the Bridgend rocker has collaborated with Brian on the track We Are One, now on his current album.

It’s been yet another wonderfully weird experience for the 33-year-old from Kenfig Hill, who is also close friends with Darth Vader actor David Prowse and Gary Numan, who he has toured with.

“Life is surreal but it’s been surreal for a long time,” he said.

“I haven’t even built up a rapport with [Brian] myself as a person. It’s a respectful camaraderie. He respects the fact that I am a fellow artiste. “I remember seeing Live Aid on TV when I was a child, I might’ve just been two or three, but it’s obviously captured me from that moment on.

“Freddie Mercury commanding that huge audience with Brian May and ever since then I wanted to be a guitarist and do music full time.”

Also a music producer who built his own studio, Northstone, in the countryside near his home, Jayce was propelled to fame a decade ago when his self-produced single Icon shot to the top of the charts in Asia. He was the subject of the BBC Wales documentary Big In India in 2010.

After working with Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor on his last album Nemesis, Jayce was able to arrange to work with Brian through a mutual friend of his and Roger’s, Joshua McCrae.

Jayce incorporated a guitar riff from a song called Cyborg off Brian’s solo album from the late 1990s into a completely new song.

A demo was sent to Brian – the two never worked in the same studio – and they put together We Are One.

“We got him to slow the riffs down and I built a song around it,” said Jayce.

“We threw it back and forth and also spoke a lot on email. He seems very down to earth.”

We Are One is on Jayce’s album Million (Part One).

Working with Brian has been the fulfilment of a lifelong dream and, despite his age, Jayce said he had already achieved much of what he set out to do.

“It’s very strange because now I have ultimately worked with everyone I have ever wanted to.”