{"id":652022,"date":"2026-05-19T08:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652022\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:36:14","slug":"why-freddie-mercury-wanted-to-stop-one-of-queens-most-iconic-guitar-solos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/652022\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Freddie Mercury Wanted To Stop One of Queen\u2019s Most Iconic Guitar Solos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unarguably, Freddie Mercury was the most exciting thing about Queen<\/a>. Though every member brought their unique, invaluable talent to the table, it was Mercury\u2019s direction that focused them into the era-defining group they were.<\/p>\n

So, when it comes to Mercury\u2019s opinion, we can\u2019t really disagree. But, if we had to, there was one instance in which he tried to remove an iconic guitar solo from one of the band\u2019s biggest songs. If that had come to pass, it would\u2019ve been a massive misstep in the band\u2019s career. Find out which guitar solo Mercury tried to kill below.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: 4 Amazing Queen Singles That Deserved Better Success in the US]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Queen Guitar Solo Freddie Mercury Tried To Stop<\/p>\n

According to Brian May, one of his key solos in the band\u2019s history was almost cut by their enigmatic frontman. The guitarist once said that Mercury saw \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Me Now\u201d as a piano song, and nothing more. As we all know, that didn\u2019t end up being the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreddie envisioned it very much as a piano song, akin to Elton John, really,\u201d May once said<\/a>. \u201c[He heard] powerhouse piano, powerhouse vocal, and that\u2019s it. I played lots of rhythm guitar on it, and Freddie still said, \u2018No, no, no, no \u2014 it\u2019s a piano song!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The beginning of this song does start out that way. Mercury pounds on a piano while his skyrocketing vocals draw the listener in. As the verses go on, Mercury ceded and let May have some room to play. They ended up with a legendary guitar solo, befitting the song\u2019s unmatched energy. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the studio and hearing it evolve, I could sort of hear the solo in my head before I actually picked up the guitar to do it,\u201d May continued. \u201cAs very often with me, it\u2019s a kind of little diversion. It\u2019s a countermelody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very simple,\u201d he added. \u201cI sometimes feel a bit apologetic about it. But I do notice that when it\u2019s played in the dancehall, it gets a reaction from people in the solo, and it steps up the energy quite a bit, even from a song that\u2019s got high energy, so I\u2019m happy with it the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queen fans are also happy with the way that it is, easily being one of May\u2019s most beloved bits of work. Revisit the guitar solo that almost didn\u2019t make it in \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Me Now\u201d above.<\/p>\n

(Photo by Fox Photos\/Hulton Archive\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unarguably, Freddie Mercury was the most exciting thing about Queen. Though every member brought their unique, invaluable talent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,28154,216,72395,2156],"class_list":["post-652022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-freddie-mercury","tag-music","tag-queen","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}