Queen’s Brian May Talks Freddie Mercury’s Shy Side & Teases New Music
Brian May isn’t giving up on new Queen material just yet. May, best known for being the lead guitarist of Queen, alongside the late frontman Freddie Mercury, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon, recently spoke in an interview with MOJO about the possibility of new songs and reminisced about how they used to write the band’s biggest hit songs in the past.
“I think it could happen,” May told MOJO. “Both Roger and I are constantly writing and coming up with ideas and doing things in our studios. I could have the beginnings of a Queen song right there in front of me now. It’s just whether the idea reaches maturity or not. It’s whether that seed can grow.”
Ian Tyas/Keystone/Getty Images
He recalled that all four of the original members would write songs and admitted that he always felt a bit nervous to show his songs to his bandmates, despite writing some of their most famous hits, including “We Will Rock You.”
May explained, “Every time I brought a new song to the boys, I’d be as nervous as hell, thinking, ‘They’re gonna say it’s rubbish, they’re gonna hate it …’ I’d always be embarrassed and apologizing. That never ever went away.”
During the interview, May also spoke about his late bandmate Mercury, who passed away in 1991 from complications of AIDS/HIV. For one of Mercury’s last songs “The Show Must Go On,” May said that he and Mercury only had one afternoon to work on it. The song was actually about Mercury, detailing the story of a clown who is suffering but must paint a smile on. May shared, “We only wrote one verse together — that was all we managed that afternoon — but it was enough to push me forward with the song. A few weeks later, Freddie came back to record the vocal. He could hardly stand, but he’s propping himself up, knocking back the vodka and saying, ‘Play the f—— tape! I’ll get it’ — and he was stupendous.”
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
He continued, “Deep down, Freddie was one of the shyest people I’ve ever met, but he was so full of bluster you’d forget. Freddie would always be excited, and his excitement would take over … He’d be so full of excitement he could hardly speak. Freddie’s ideas were off the wall and cheeky and different — and we tended to encourage them. Sometimes the idea he brought in was brilliant, and sometimes not brilliant.”
May remembers one idea that was not Mercury’s greatest. He explained, “He came in one day and announced, ‘I’ve got this amazing idea. You know Michael Jackson has just put out this album called Bad? … Well, listen … What do you think about us calling our next album Good?’ We all looked at each other and said, ‘Well, maybe we should think about it, Freddie.’ It wasn’t one of his world-shattering ideas, but looking back, maybe we were wrong …”
Do you hope that Queen releases new songs?
Remind 
Birth of Rock 'n' Roll
February 2024
"Long live rock," we like to say, but how did it come to life? Revisit the memorable moments, music and movies that made teens go beat crazy back in the 1950s.
Buy This Issue