Brian May
Brian May
Brian Harold May, CBEis an English musician, singer, songwriter and astrophysicist, best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. He uses a home-built electric guitar, called the Red Special. His compositions for the band include "We Will Rock You", "Tie Your Mother Down", "I Want It All", "Fat Bottomed Girls", "The Prophet's Song", "Flash", "Hammer to Fall", "Save Me", "Who Wants to Live Forever" and "The Show Must Go On"...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth19 July 1947
CityLondon, England
At the moment the Queen stuff does sell really well, but there's no guarantee it'll go on forever
For a time I didn't want to answer any questions about Queen. I'd like to be viewed as something alive and relevant, not some fossil.
Queen songs are not about the life of a rock star - they tend to be about the lives of normal people, which is why I think the songs connect so much. We're very lucky that they seemingly connect with every generation.
People have been rumouring that Queen are going to split up for the last eight years at least. I've got some great cuttings at home from people saying 'One thing is certain, Queen will no longer exist in a year's time.' And that was in 1973.
Queen had its time and place, and at the moment I'm not concentrating on that era.
A Queen track has those big, thick, block harmonies.
I spent 20 years of my life building up Queen, and now Im spending years of my life trying to get away from it.
Queen songs tend to be about very personal things: personal dreams and personal ambitions.
To my mind Keep Yourself Alive was never really satisfactory. Never had that magic that it should have had.
I don't think anybody comes close to The Beatles, including Oasis
Astronomy's much more fun when you're not an astronomer
This man (FreddieMercury) truly possessed the greatest voice in the history of rock. Journalists, culture experts and analysts have already made several hundred comments on this topic and nothing can be added here.
The guitar was my weapon, my shield to hide behind.
I never took sheet music seriously. I could do better myself just by listening to other people and using my own intuition.