{"id":350026,"date":"2026-09-18T06:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350026\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:51:13","slug":"brian-may-on-the-freddie-mercury-idea-that-left-queen-speechless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/350026\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian May on the Freddie Mercury idea that left Queen speechless:"},"content":{"rendered":"

As rock duos go, few have forged a partnership like Queen\u2019s Brian May and Freddie Mercury. Between May\u2019s mastery of his iconic Red Special guitar<\/a> and Mercury\u2019s ear for a hit, the pair took Queen to the top of the charts and the rock world.<\/p>\n

Usually, May says in a new interview, Mercury\u2019s ideas were inspired. But there was one occasion when the singer\u2019s latest suggestion left his bandmates less than convinced.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very good at coming up with titles,\u201d May tells Planet Rock. \u201cAnd he would be quite secretive. He\u2019d say, \u2018I have this great idea. Do you want to know what it is?\u2019 Generally, the idea would be really good. And we\u2019d go, \u2018Oh, yeah, Freddie. Okay, that\u2019s pretty good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Brian\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But even the most prolific songwriting talents can have an off day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular day, he said, \u2018I\u2019ve got this great idea,\u2019\u201d May recalls. \u201c\u2018You know Michael Jackson\u2019s album Bad? I had this great idea. Tell me what you think. No one\u2019s ever done this. I think we call our album Good.\u2019<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a sort of silence in the room,\u201d the guitarist continues. \u201c[We thought], \u2018Well, yeah, maybe,\u2019 but there was this feeling of, \u2018Probably no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It was, May concedes, one of the singer\u2019s few duds.<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of Freddie\u2019s ideas were excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian May on the future of Queen & revisiting their classic albums – YouTube
\n\"Brian<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The suggestion might have been rejected, but the choice of Bad as a reference was fitting given Queen\u2019s connection to Michael Jackson. Jackson was a huge admirer of the band and, when asked if he was a Queen fan, reportedly replied, \u201cI\u2019m not a Queen fan, I\u2019m a Freddie Mercury fan.\u201d He regularly attended Queen shows at the L.A. Forum, and the two eventually became friends.<\/p>\n

By 1983, Mercury and Jackson were collaborating on music, recording three songs together, although only one \u2014 \u201cThere Must Be More to Life Than This\u201d \u2014 would eventually be released.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the only occasion when May and Mercury found themselves on different wavelengths. When it came to one of Queen\u2019s biggest hits<\/a>, the singer initially resisted the idea of May adding a guitar solo. In that case, though, May ultimately got his way \u2014 and Mercury was grateful that he did.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Brian\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the interview, May was asked to clarify a key detail about the Red Special. The six-string was famously built<\/a> by May and his father when the guitarist was a teenager, and it famously incorporated wood from a fireplace.<\/p>\n

But exactly whose fireplace was it?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019d have taken our fireplace out, the house would have fallen down,\u201d May jokes. \u201cIt was a piece of somebody\u2019s fireplace that my dad had saved. He had a workshop with lots of bits and pieces that he\u2019d saved from all over, thinking it might come in handy. I still have the rest of the fireplace, so I could actually make another neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Special remains central to May\u2019s legacy, and he has recently gifted his old friend Tony Iommi a custom-made left-handed version<\/a>. Steve Vai, meanwhile, has gone for a more radical tribute<\/a> and has recalled how difficult<\/a> the original model was to tame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As rock duos go, few have forged a partnership like Queen\u2019s Brian May and Freddie Mercury. Between May\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-350026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}