Credit: Far Out / Denis Pellerin
Sat 18 April 2026 13:30, UK
While some might prefer to have a little bit more variety in their listening habits, there are plenty of people out there whose fandom of a rock band goes far beyond and requires a daily listen in order to be satiated.
Take, for example, a band like Queen… You might think that they’re overplayed, and that you never want to hear ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ ever again, but for others, it’s a ritual that they’ll never tire of – some people will sit down to listen to their favourite Queen song and realise that they can’t get enough of it from just one listen, and immediately turn back to the beginning to get another fix.
Say a bad word about any of the members or their abilities to one of these superfans, and you’ll be met with a torrent of reasons why you’re wrong, and a list of defences that even try to extol the virtues of their worst material. Quite often, you’ll struggle to even divert their attention so much as to highlight how there are other new bands that might have a vague whiff of an influence, as they won’t be interested unless it’s that perfect quartet that they idolise so much.
Of course, it’s not just Queen that has such a rabid fanbase, and you could reasonably apply this theory to any band or artist that has reached a similar level of success throughout the history of popular music. This is what fandom is all about, and if someone is able to take this to the extreme where they simply never tire of hearing the same material over and over, then more power to them for knowing what they like.
As for the members of Queen themselves, one of them has always had a rather intense obsession with another band, and is especially enamoured with his counterpart in the band’s contributions to the world of rock and roll.
It makes complete sense that Brian May would be obsessed with Led Zeppelin, and especially with Jimmy Page, given how they acted as a necessary precursor that helped Queen to establish their own identity as a group in the first place.
In fact, May claimed during a 2020 interview with Total Guitar, after having been voted by readers as the greatest guitarist of all time, that he felt as though Page would perhaps have been a more worthy recipient of the gong. While the two have become good friends in later life, owing to the fact that they live near to each other and have plenty to talk about, May used to look up to Page as one of the all-time greats, and is still left speechless by his talents.
“To me, he’s a master of invention, that’s what I would say,” May said of his peer. “He’s a major, major force in defining what heavy rock became as it was being born. I never get fed up of listening to those Zeppelin albums, and I never will.”
Sure, it’s understandable to a degree to idolise someone in this regard, and perhaps this is how those who make listening to their favourite band a daily habit feel. Besides, it’s hard to really argue against the significance of Led Zeppelin when you consider how they laid the foundation for countless other rock bands, and so for May to proclaim that he won’t ever tire of hearing Page perform on listening to Led Zeppelin’s albums is less of a bizarre obsession and more of a completely understandable infatuation.
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