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
