This article is about the British musician and astrophysicist. For the Australian film composer, seeBrian May (Australian composer). For the Canadian politician, seeBryan May.
Sir Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician,animal welfare activist, andastrophysicist. He achieved global fame as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the rock bandQueen, which he co-founded with singerFreddie Mercury and drummerRoger Taylor. His guitar work and songwriting contributions helped Queen become one of the most successful acts in music history.
May is regarded as a virtuoso musician with a distinctive sound created through his layered guitar work, often using a home-built electric guitar called theRed Special.[5] In 2005, aPlanet Rock poll saw May voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time.[6] He was ranked at No. 33 onRolling Stone's 2023 list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time.[7] In 2012, he was further ranked the second-greatest guitarist in aGuitar World magazine readers poll.[8] In 2001, May was inducted into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Queen and, in 2018, the band received theGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[9]
At Hampton Grammar School, May attained tenGCE Ordinary Levels and threeGCE Advanced Levels in physics, mathematics, and applied mathematics.[26] He studied mathematics and physics atImperial College London, graduating in 1968 with aBSc degree in physics with honours.[27] After his graduation, May was invited bySir Bernard Lovell to work at theJodrell Bank Observatory while continuing to prepare his doctorate. He declined, choosing instead to remain at Imperial College to avoid leaving Smile, his London-based band.[28]
In 2007, May earned a PhD degree in astrophysics from Imperial College London for work started in 1971.[2][3][29][30]
May formed the band Smile in 1968. The group includedTim Staffell as the lead singer and bassist, and later, drummerRoger Taylor, who also went on to play for Queen. The band lasted from 1968 to 1970, when Staffell left, leaving the band with a catalogue of nine songs.
Smile would reunite for several songs on 22 December 1992. Taylor's bandThe Cross were headliners, and he brought May and Staffell on to play "Earth" and "If I Were a Carpenter".[31] May also performed several other songs that night.Their final performance was during their European tour in London's All Points East on 28 August 2022.[32]
After theLive Aid concert in 1985, Mercury rang his band members and proposed writing a song together. The result was "One Vision", which was basically May on music (theMagic Years documentary shows how he came up with the opening section and the basic guitar riff); the lyrics were co-written by the four band members.[35]
For their 1989 release album,The Miracle, the band had decided that all of the tracks would be credited to the entire band, no matter who had been the main writer.[36] Interviews and musical analyses tend to help identify the input of each member on each track. May composed "I Want It All" for that album, as well as "Scandal" (based on his problems with the British press). For the rest of the album, he did not contribute much creatively. However, he helped in building the basis of "Party" and "Was It All Worth It" (both being predominantly Mercury's pieces) and created the "Chinese Torture" guitar riff.[36]
Queen's subsequent album wasInnuendo. May's contributions increased, although more in terms of arranging than actual writing in most cases. He did some of the arrangement for the heavy solo on thetitle track. He added vocal harmonies to "I'm Going Slightly Mad" and composed the solo for "These Are the Days of Our Lives", a song for which the four of them decided the keyboard parts together.[37]
Two songs May had composed for his first solo album, "Headlong" and "I Can't Live With You", eventually ended up on the Queen project. His other composition was "The Show Must Go On", which he coordinated and was the primary composer.[38] In recent years, he has supervised the remastering of Queen albums and various DVD and greatest hits releases. In 2004, he announced that he and drummer Roger Taylor were going on tour for the first time in 18 years as "Queen", along withFree/Bad Company vocalistPaul Rodgers. Billed as "Queen + Paul Rodgers", the band played throughout 2005 and 2006 in South Africa, Europe, Aruba, Japan, and North America and released a new album with Rodgers in 2008, titledThe Cosmos Rocks. This album was supported by a major tour.[39]
During 1983, several members of Queen explored side projects. On 21 and 22 April in Los Angeles, May was in a studio withEddie Van Halen, with no intention of recording anything. The result of the two-day session was a mini album titledStar Fleet Project, which was not originally going to be released.[43] In 1986, May contributed to formerGenesis guitaristSteve Hackett's albumFeedback 86, playing guitar on the track "Cassandra" and providing guitar and vocals for "Slot Machine", which May co-wrote. Although produced in 1986, the album was not released commercially until 2000. Another song co-written by May and Hackett during this period, "Don't Fall Away from Me", was eventually recorded by Hackett in 1992 for release on hisThe Unauthorised Biography compilation album. Also in 1986, May worked with actressAnita Dobson on her first album, most noted for the song "Anyone Can Fall in Love", which added lyrics to theEastEnders theme tune and reached number four on theUK Singles Chart in August 1986. May and Dobson married in 2000.[44] In 1988, May contributed guitar solos to the song "When Death Calls" onBlack Sabbath's 14th albumHeadless Cross, and theLiving in a Box track "Blow The House Down" on the albumGatecrashing.[45] Both albums were released in 1989.
After the tragic break-up of any band, it feels impossible to continue but I was really glad that Brian did launch a solo career. He had such a lot of music in him and a great deal more to give.
In the aftermath of the November 1991death of Mercury, May chose to deal with his grief by committing himself as fully as possible to work, first by finishing his solo album,Back to the Light,[47] and then touring worldwide to promote it. He frequently remarked in press interviews that this was the only form of self-prescribed therapy he could think of.[48] According toDef Leppard lead singerJoe Elliott, "It was undoubtedly an enormous and terrible blow to lose someone he was so close to. Personally, I know it ripped the heart out of Brian, but having said that, he was in great spirits after the album was finished."[46]Back to the Light featured the single "Too Much Love Will Kill You", on which he collaborated as a songwriter withFrank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers. A version with Freddie Mercury's vocals was later released on the Queen albumMade in Heaven and won theIvor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically in 1996.[49]
In late 1992,the Brian May Band was officially formed. May had loosely formed an earlier version of the band for 19 October 1991, when May took part in the Guitar Legends guitar festival inSeville, Spain. The line-up for his performance was May on vocals and lead guitar,Cozy Powell on drums and percussion,Mike Moran andRick Wakeman on keyboards, andMaggie Ryder,Miriam Stockley andChris Thompson on backing vocals.[50] The original line-up was May on vocals and lead guitar, Powell on drums and percussion,Michael Casswell on guitar,Neil Murray on bass, and Ryder, Stockley and Thompson on backing vocals. This version of the band was together only during the South American support tour (supportingThe B-52's andJoe Cocker) on five dates.[51]
May later made significant changes, feeling the group never quite gelled. May brought guitaristJamie Moses on board to replace Mike Caswell. The backing vocalists, Ryder, Stockley and Thompson, were replaced byCatherine Porter andShelley Preston. On 23 February 1993, this new line-up of The Brian May Band began its world tour in the US, supportingGuns N' Roses and headlining a few dates.[52] The tour included dates in North America, Europe (support act: Valentine) and Japan. On 15 June 1993, the band did a show in London that would end up asThe Brian May Band's only release as a collective, namelyLive at the Brixton Academy. At the show, May would sing a few lines of"Love of My Life", and then, as Mercury used to, let the audience join in.[53] After the tour ended on 18 December 1993, May returned to the studio with fellow surviving Queen band members Roger Taylor andJohn Deacon to work on tracks that becameMade in Heaven, the final Queen studio album.[54] The band took Mercury's solo album demos and last recordings, which he managed to perform in the studio after the albumInnuendo was finished, and completed them with their additions both musically and vocally.[55] After Mercury's death, work on the album by Deacon and May began originally in 1992 but was left until a later date due to other commitments.[54]
In 1995, May began working on a new solo album of covers tentatively titledHeroes, in addition to working on various film and television projects[56] and other collaborations. May subsequently changed the approach from covers to focus on those collaborations and new material. The songs includedAnother World, and featured mainlySpike Edney, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Jamie Moses. On 5 April 1998, Cozy Powell was killed in a car accident on theM4 motorway nearBristol, England. This incident caused an unexpected disruption to the upcoming tour for the Brian May Band, which now needed a new drummer on short notice.Steve Ferrone was brought on to help May finish recording the drum tracks and join the band for the early stage promotional tour of five dates in Europe before the world tour. Following the early promotional tour,Eric Singer replaced him on the 1998 world tour.[57]
The 1998 tour saw the brief introduction of a 'support act' known as T. E. Conway. Conway (Brian May in a wig and colourful suit playing the part of ateddy boy crooner) would play several 1950srock and roll standards before May's 'arrival'. A bonus T. E. Conway EP titledRetro Rock Special was attached to some pressings of theAnother World album. The Conway character was retired at the end of the tour.[58]In May 1999, May recorded lead guitars for the Guns N' Roses song "Catcher in the Rye" onChinese Democracy, but his performance was removed from the album by the time it was released in 2008.[59]
From his last solo release in 1998, May has been performing as a solo artist, as part of an ensemble, and infrequently as Queen with Roger Taylor. On 22 October 2000, he made a guest appearance at theMotörhead 25th Anniversary show atBrixton Academy along withEddie Clarke (former Motörhead guitarist) for the encore song "Overkill". As part of theGolden Jubilee of Elizabeth II celebrations on 3 June 2002, May performed aguitar solo of "God Save the Queen" from the roof ofBuckingham Palace, with the performance appearing on the 30th Anniversary DVD edition ofA Night at the Opera.[60][61] May played guitar on the song "Someone to Die For" on theSpider-Man 2soundtrack in 2004.[62]
On the Queen's birthday honours list of 2005, he was made aCommander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire "for services to the music industry and for charity work".[63] In the same year he played the guitar on the songIl mare... for Italian singerZucchero Fornaciari, on his albumZu & Co., and he took part in the concert at theRoyal Albert Hall in London held in May 2004, with the other guests of the Italian bluesman. May was a celebrity guest at the Genesis reunion concert atTwickenham Stadium in 2007.[64] May and Genesis frontmanPhil Collins worked together on two previous occasions, atThe Prince's Trust Rock Gala in 1988 and theParty at the Palace in 2002, when Collins had played drums with Queen. In 2011 he contributed to a feature about Collins forFHM, praising him as "a great guy and an amazing drummer".[65]
May worked extensively with stage actress and singerKerry Ellis after he cast her in the musicalWe Will Rock You. He produced and arranged her debut studio albumAnthems (2010), a follow-up to her extended playWicked in Rock (2008), as well as appearing with Ellis at many public performances—playing guitar alongside her. He also contributed a guitar solo toMeat Loaf'sHang Cool, Teddy Bear album in exchange for the use of drummerJohn Miceli.
On 20 May 2009, May and Queen bandmate Roger Taylor performed "We Are the Champions" live on the season finale ofAmerican Idol with winnerKris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet.[71] In November 2009, May appeared with Taylor onThe X Factor, with Queen mentoring the contestants, then later performed "Bohemian Rhapsody". In April 2010, May founded the "Save Me" 2010 project to work against any proposed repeal of the British fox-hunting ban, and to promote animal welfare in Britain.[72] In February 2011, it was announced that May would tour with Kerry Ellis, playing 12 dates across the UK in May 2011.[73]
At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers, the founder and former lead singer of Free and Bad Company. Brian May's website also stated that Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen as Queen + Paul Rodgers, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury. The retired John Deacon would not be participating.[74]
Between 2005 and 2006 Queen and Paul Rodgers embarked on aworld tour, the first leg being Europe and the second, Japan and the US in 2006.[75] On 25 May 2006, Queen received the inauguralVH1 Rock Honors at theMandalay Bay Events Center inLas Vegas, Nevada, and May and Taylor were joined on stage with theFoo Fighters to perform a selection of Queen songs.[75][76] On 15 August 2006, May confirmed through his website and fan club that Queen + Paul Rodgers would begin producing their first studio album in October, to be recorded at a "secret location".[77] The album, titledThe Cosmos Rocks, was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the United States on 28 October 2008. Following the album's release, the band embarked on a tour through Europe and parts of the US, opening onKharkiv's freedom square in front of 350,000 Ukrainian fans.[78] The show in Ukraine was laterreleased on DVD.[78] Queen and Paul Rodgers officially split up on 12 May 2009. Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working together again.[79][80]
At the2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received theGlobal Icon Award, whichKaty Perry presented to Brian May.[89] Queen closed the awards ceremony, with Adam Lambert on vocals, performing "The Show Must Go On", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions".[89] The collaboration garnered a positive response from both fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together.[90]Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the Hammersmith Apollo, London, on 11 and 12 July 2012.[91][92] Both shows sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on open sale.[93] A third London date was added for 14 July.[94] On 30 June, Queen + Lambert performed inKyiv, Ukraine at a joint concert withElton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation.[95] Queen also performed with Lambert on 3 July 2012 at Moscow'sOlympic Stadium,[96][97] and on 7 July 2012 at theMunicipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland.[98]
May with Taylor (right) andJessie J in August 2012
In January 2012, May featured onN-Dubz frontmanDappy's solo single "Rockstar",[99] providing "rumbling guitar riffs which culminate in an electrifying solo".[100] The pair also collaborated on a performance of "We Will Rock You" forBBC Radio 1'sLive Lounge.[101]
Welsh electronic musicianJayce Lewis collaborated with May in 2018 on the songWe Are One, taken from Lewis' 2018 album releaseMillion. Incorporating a repurposedFinger tapping/Hammering riff from May's solo trackCyborg from his album;Another World, both artists re-recorded May's guitar at a slower speed, and included it to the new song composition.[107][108][109]
Not long after performing withAmerican Idol finalists Kris Allen and Adam Lambert during the programme's season finale in 2009, May and Taylor began contemplating the future of Queen after the group's amicable split with frontman Paul Rodgers. At the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, Queen was presented with that year's Global Icon Award, accepted by May. As part of the broadcast, Queen performed a short set with Lambert, receiving an overwhelmingly welcoming response.[90] Speculation regarding collaboration with Lambert soon arose, with the three formally announcing a short summer tour of Europe in 2012, including three dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, as well as shows in Ukraine, Russia and Poland.[113][114]
The collaboration was revived in 2013, when the three performed together at theiHeartRadio Music Festival at theMGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on 20 September.[115] Five months later, May, Taylor and Lambert announced a 19-date summer tour of North America onGood Morning America.[116] Because of ticket demand, five dates were soon added.[117] In May 2014, shows in Australia[118] and New Zealand[119] were announced, along with festival performances in South Korea[120] and Japan.[121] The tour was extended to the UK and greater Europe in early 2015.[122] The group performed together in South America in September 2015, including Queen's first performance at theRock in Rio Festival since 1985.[123]
May performing a solo ofDvořák'sNew World Symphony in a planet-themed segment during a June 2022 Queen + Adam Lambert concert
In 2016, the group embarked across Europe and Asia on the Queen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour. This included closing theIsle of Wight Festival in England on 12 June where they performed "Who Wants to Live Forever" as a tribute to the victims of themass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier that day.[124] On 12 September they performed at theYarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel for the first time in front of 58,000 people.[125] In September 2018 the group had a residency in the MGM Park Theater in Las Vegas.[126] Though the collaboration remains active, there are currently no plans to record a studio album, though the three are willing to do so in the future.[127]On 31 March 2020, Queen + Adam Lambert confirmed that their touring dates were postponed until 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.[128]
His tone immediately grabbed me. Brian has his own style and sound, so you can always tell his work. Even in 1971 he had incredible finesse, amazing fluidity.
May has been referred to as a virtuoso guitarist by many publications and musicians.[134][135][136][137][138] He has featured in various music polls of the greatest rock guitarists, and in 2011 was ranked number 26 onRolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".[7] In January 2007, the readers ofGuitar World voted May's guitar solos on "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Brighton Rock" into the "top 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time" (No.20 and No.41 respectively).[139] FormerVan Halen vocalistSammy Hagar stated, "I thought Queen were really innovative and made some great sounding records... I like the rockin' stuff. I think Brian May has one of the great guitar tones on the planet, and I really, really love his guitar work."[138]Justin Hawkins, lead guitarist ofthe Darkness, cites May as his earliest influence, saying "I really loved his tone and vibrato and everything. I thought his playing sounded like a singing voice. I wanted to be able to do that. Whenever I went to guitar lessons, I was always asking to learn Queen stuff."[140]
American guitar virtuoso Steve Vai has spoken highly of May's work, saying:
In that whole genre, in that whole period—he's one of the most unique contributors. He doesn't get credit. Because what he does is so rich and so specific, and so deep, it fits so well in Queen music, you just feel it as part of that music. But when you break it down and when you look at it from a guitar player's point of view, it's unique, and nobody to this date could do what he does and make it sound like that. He is an iconic player. His tone, his choice of melody notes, he doesn't just do solos. His solos are melodies, and they're perfectly in place.[141]
Most of May's electric guitar work live and in the studio is done on theRed Special, which he built with his father, an electronics engineer, when he was sixteen years old.[5][22][142][143][144][145] It was built with wood from an 18th-century fireplace, and was composed of household items such as mother-of-pearl buttons, shelf edging, and motorbike valve springs. While May and his father were building the Red Special, May also produced plans to build a second guitar. However, the Red Special was so successful that May did not need to build another guitar.[146] These plans were eventually given to guitarluthier Andrew Guyton in around 2004–05. Guyton made some slight modifications and the guitar was built. It was named "The Spade" as the body's shape resembled the form shown on playing cards. The guitar also came to be known as "The Guitar That Time Forgot".[146]
May commented on the Red Special:
I like a big neck – thick, flat and wide. I lacquered the fingerboard with Rustin's Plastic Coating. The tremolo is interesting in that the arm's made from an old bicycle saddle bag carrier, the knob from the ends of a knitting needle, and the springs are valve springs from an old motorbike.[147]
In addition to using his home-made guitar he prefers to use coins (especiallya sixpence from the farewell proof set of 1970), instead of a more traditional plasticplectrum, because he feels their rigidity gives him more control in playing.[148] He is known to carry coins in his pockets specifically for this purpose.[148]
A meticulous arranger, he focuses on multi-part harmonies, often morecontrapuntal than parallel—a relative rarity for rock guitar. Examples are found in Queen's albumsA Night at the Opera andA Day at the Races, where he arranged a jazz band for guitar mini-orchestra ("Good Company"), a vocal canon ("The Prophet's Song") and guitar and vocal counterpoints ("Teo Torriatte").
May explored a wide variety of styles in guitar, including:sweep picking ("Was It All Worth It" "Chinese Torture");tremolo ("Brighton Rock", "Stone Cold Crazy", "Death on Two Legs", "Sweet Lady", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Get Down Make Love", "Dragon Attack");tapping ("Bijou", "It's Late", "Resurrection", "Cyborg", "Rain Must Fall", "Business", "China Belle", "I Was Born To Love You"); slide guitar ("Drowse", "Tie Your Mother Down");Hendrix sounding licks ("Liar", "Brighton Rock"); tape-delay ("Brighton Rock", "White Man"); and melodic sequences ("Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "These Are the Days of Our Lives"). Some of his solos and orchestral parts were composed byFreddie Mercury, who then asked May to bring them to life ("Bicycle Race", "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", "Killer Queen", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy"). May also performed notable acoustic works, including the finger-picked solo of "White Queen" (fromQueen II), "Love of My Life" and theskiffle-influenced "'39" (both fromA Night at the Opera).
Aided by the uniqueness of the Red Special, May was often able to create strange and unusual sound effects. For example, he was able to imitate an orchestra in the song "Procession"; in "Get Down, Make Love" he was able to create various sound effects with his guitar; in "Good Company" he used his guitar to mimic a trombone, a piccolo and several other instruments for the song's Dixieland jazz band feel. Queen used a "No synthesizers were used on this album" sleeve note on their early albums to make this clear to the listeners.[149] May also used his guitar to create the chime effect in "Bohemian Rhapsody".[150]
May's early influences includedCliff Richard andthe Shadows, who he says were "the most metallic thing(s) out at the time". Many years later, he finally got the chance to play on two separate occasions with the Shadows’ lead guitaristHank Marvin. He has collaborated with Richard on a re-recording of 1958 hit "Move It" on Richard's duets albumTwo's Company, which was released on 6 November 2006.[151]
May always stated thatthe Beatles,Led Zeppelin,[152]the Who andJimi Hendrix were the greatest influences on him. On theQueen for an Hour interview on BBC Radio 1 in 1989, May listed Hendrix,Jeff Beck andEric Clapton as his guitar heroes. In a 1991 interview forGuitar World magazine, May referred to the Who as "my inspiration", and on seeing Led Zeppelin stated, "We used to look at those guys and think, 'That's the way it should be done.'"[153] May toldGuitarist in 2004, "I don't think anyone has epitomisedriff writing better thanJimmy Page — he's one of the great brains of rock music".[154]
May also citesRory Gallagher as a major influence, saying "He was a magician. He was one of the very few people of that time who could make his guitar do anything, it seemed. I remember looking at that battered Stratocaster and thinking, 'How does that (sound) come out of there?'" According to May, "... it was Rory that gave me my sound, and that's the sound I still have."[155] May was also influenced bySteve Hackett, guitarist of theprogressive rock band Genesis,[156] in particular his harmony guitar solo at the end of the band's epic 1971 song "The Musical Box".[157] Hackett said of May, "Equally, his energetic approach to guitar inspired me."[158]
May (pictured in 2017) playing his custom-madeRed SpecialReplica of May's Red Special in the shop window,Denmark Street, London
From 1975 onwards, May had some replicas made of the Red Special, some of which were also used for live and recording purposes, others being mainly spares. The most famous replicas were made by John Birch in 1975 (May smashed it during a concert in the US in 1982),Greco BM90 (featured in the promo video of "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" in 1977), Guild (back-up from 1984 to 1993), Fryers (1997–1998, used both live and in the studio) and Guyton[159] (back-up from 2003 to present). On stage, May used to carry at least one backup guitar (in case he broke a string). He occasionally would use others for specific songs or parts, such as alternative tunings. Currently, May owns a company that makes guitars whose design is modelled after the original Red Special guitar.
October 1974 – May 1975:Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, and the Stratocaster from the previous tour.[160]
November 1975 – May 1976: Same two guitars as before, plus a natural finish John Birch replica of the Red Special.[160]
September 1976: Same three as before, plus a Martin D-18 acoustic for "'39".
January 1977 – August 1979: Just the Birch replica plus an Ovation Pacemaker 12-string acoustic on some numbers ("'39", "Love of My Life", "Dreamer's Ball").
November 1979 – June 1982: Birch replica (back-up),Fender Telecaster ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love" 2nd verse, middle-eight and solo), Ovation (acoustic numbers).
July – November 1982: Added aGibson Flying V as second back-up. On 9 August 1982, May smashed the Birch guitar, so the Flying V became the only spare.
August – October 1984: The Flying V became a second back-up again as his main spare was the Guild replica. He also used Roger Taylor's Gibson Chet-Atkins Classical Electric.
July 1985 – August 1986: Gibson Flying V no longer used. The rest remained the same. May used a Gibson Chet-Atkins guitar on the 1986 Magic Tour.[160]
In 2012, he received a double-neck replica of the Red Special, with the second neck having 12-strings. He used this guitar at a few gigs with Adam Lambert now being able to play the 12-string part from the studio version of "Under Pressure" live.[161]
He currently has a Gibson 12-string SJ200 to replace his Guild 12-string. He previously used an Ovation Pacemaker 1615 model. Some of the non-RS electric guitars he used in the studio included:
Burns Double Six on "Long Away" (1976)[160] and "Under Pressure" (1981).
Fender Telecaster on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (1979).[160] May used it for the video (but not the recordings) of "Back Chat" (1982).
Gibson Firebird on "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up" (album versions only, not on stage).[162]
For acoustic, he favoured Ovation,[160] Martin,Tōkai Hummingbird, Godin and Guild. On a couple of videos, he also used some different electric guitars: a Stratocaster copy on "Play the Game" (1980) and aWashburn RR2V on "Princes of the Universe" (1986).
In 1984,Guild released the first official Red Special replica for mass production and made some prototypes specifically for May. However, the solid-body construction (the original RS has hollow cavities in the body) and the pick-ups (DiMarzio) that were not a replica of the Burns TriSonic did not make May happy. The production of the guitars stopped after just 300 guitars. In 1993, Guild made a second replica of the RS, made in just 1000 copies, of which May has some and used as a back-up. At the moment, he uses the two guitars made by Greg Fryer—the luthier who restored the Old Lady in 1998—as back-up. They are almost identical to the original, except for the Fryer logo on the headstock (May's original one has a sixpence).
May has usedVox AC30 amplifiers almost exclusively since a meeting with his long-time heroRory Gallagher at a gig in London during the late 1960s/early 1970s.[164] In the mid-1970s he used six of them, with anEchoplex delay (with extended delay time) plugged into a separate amplifier, and a second Echoplex plugged into yet another amp; he used a homemade booster, his only effects pedal, which was on all the time.[165] His choice is the model AC30TBX, the top-boost version with Blue Alnico speakers, and he runs the amp at full volume on the Normal channel.[166]
May also customises his amps by removing the Brilliant and Vib-trem channels (leaving only the circuitry for the Normal). This alters the tone slightly, with a gain addition of 6–7 dB. He always used atreble booster which, along with the AC30 and his custom 'Deacy Amp' transistor amp, built by Queen bass player John Deacon, went a long way in helping to create many of his signature guitar tones.[167] He used the Dallas Rangemaster for the first Queen albums, up toA Day at the Races. Effects designerPete Cornish built for him the TB-83 (32 dB of gain) that was used for all the remaining Queen albums. He switched in 2000 to the Fryer's booster, which actually gives less boost than the TB-83.
When performing live, May uses banks of Vox AC30 amplifiers, keeping some amps with only guitar and others with all effects such as delay,flanger and chorus. He has a rack of 14 AC30s, which are grouped as Normal, Chorus, Delay 1, Delay 2. On his pedal board, May has a custom switch unit made by Cornish and subsequently modified by Fryer that allows him to choose which amps are active. He uses aBOSS pedal from the '70s, the Chorus Ensemble CE-1, which can be heard in "In The Lap of The Gods" (Live at Wembley '86) or "Hammer to Fall" (slow version played live with P. Rodgers). Next in the chain, he uses a Foxx Foot Phaser ("We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions", "Keep Yourself Alive", etc.), and two delay machines to play his trademark solo in "Brighton Rock".
As a child, May was trained on classical piano. Although Freddie Mercury was the band's primary pianist, May would step in occasionally (such as on "Save Me"[168] and "Flash").[169] He mostly used Freddie Mercury's 1972 Steinway piano. From 1979 onwards, he also played synthesisers, organ ("Wedding March",[170] "Let Me Live") and programmed drum-machines for both Queen and outside projects (such as producing other artists and his own solo records). In the studio, May usedYamaha DX7 synths for the opening sequence of "One Vision"[171] and the backgrounds of "Who Wants to Live Forever"[172] (also on stage), "Scandal" and "The Show Must Go On".
The first instrument May learned to play was thebanjolele. He used a "genuineGeorge Formby Ukulele-Banjo" in "Bring Back That Leroy Brown" and"Good Company". Occasionally, May would also record on other string instruments such as harp (one chord per take, then copied and pasted by the engineer to make it sound like a continuous performance) and bass (on some demos and many songs in his solo career, and the Queen + Paul Rodgers album). May was keen on using some toys as instruments as well. He used aYamaha plastic piano in "Teo Torriatte"[173] and a toy minikoto in "The Prophet's Song".[174]
May studied physics and mathematics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc (Hons) degree andARCS in physics withUpper Second-Class Honours. From 1970 to 1974, he studied for a PhD degree[2] at Imperial College, studying reflected light frominterplanetary dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System. When Queen began to have international success in 1974, he abandoned his doctoral studies, but nonetheless co-authored twopeer-reviewed research papers,[175][176] which were based on his observations at theTeide Observatory in Tenerife.
In October 2006, May re-registered for his doctorate at Imperial College, and he submitted his thesis in August 2007 (one year earlier than he estimated it would take to complete). As well as writing up the previous work he had done, May had to review the work on zodiacal dust undertaken during the intervening 33 years, which included the discovery of the zodiacal dust bands byNASA'sIRAS satellite. After aviva voce, the revised thesis (titled "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud")[2] was approved in September 2007, some 37 years after it had been commenced.[30][177][178][179][180] He was able to submit his thesis only because of the minimal amount of research on the topic during the intervening years and has described the subject as one that became in-demand again in the 2000s.[181] In his doctoral research, he investigatedradial velocity usingabsorption spectroscopy anddoppler spectroscopy ofzodiacal light using aFabry–Pérot interferometer based at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife. His research was initially supervised by Jim Ring,[3] Ken Reay[3] and in the latter stages byMichael Rowan-Robinson.[2] He graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College held in the Royal Albert Hall on 14 May 2008.[182]
In October 2007, May was appointed a visiting researcher in Imperial College and he continues his interest in astronomy and involvement with the Imperial Astrophysics Group. He is co-author, with SirPatrick Moore andChris Lintott, ofBang! – The Complete History of the Universe[183][184] andThe Cosmic Tourist.[185] May appeared on the 700th episode ofThe Sky at Night hosted by Sir Patrick Moore, along with Chris Lintott,Jon Culshaw, ProfessorBrian Cox, and theAstronomer RoyalMartin Rees who, on departing the panel, told Brian May, who was joining it, "I don't know a scientist who looks as much likeIsaac Newton as you do."[186] May was also a guest on the first episode of the third series of the BBC'sStargazing Live, on 8 January 2013.
On 17 November 2007, May was appointed chancellor ofLiverpool John Moores University,[187] and he was installed in 2008 having also been awarded an honorary fellowship from the university for his contribution to astronomy and services to the public understanding of science.[188] He held the post until 2013.[186] Asteroid52665 Brianmay was named after him on 18 June 2008 on the suggestion of Patrick Moore (probably influenced by the asteroid's provisional designation of1998BM30).[145][189]
May at Johns Hopkins University on 31 December 2018 before theNew Horizons flyby of the Kuiper belt object486958 Arrokoth
In 2014, May co-foundedAsteroid Day withApollo 9 astronautRusty Schweickart,B612 Foundation COO Danica Remy and German filmmakerGrigorij Richters. Asteroid Day is a global awareness campaign where people from around the world come together to learn aboutasteroids and what we can do toprotect our planet.[190] May was a guest at the 2016 Starmus Festival where he also performed on stage with composerHans Zimmer. The theme wasBeyond The Horizon: A Tribute To Stephen Hawking.[191]
During theNew Horizons Pluto flyby NASA press conference held on 17 July 2015 atJohns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, May was introduced as a science team collaborator. He told the panel "You have inspired the world."[192][193] From 31 December 2018 until 1 January 2019, May was in attendance at the watch party for the New Horizons flyby of the Kuiper belt object,486958 Arrokoth, and performed an updated version of his "New Horizons" celebratory song.[194] As part of May's role as a collaborator with NASA's science team on the New Horizons mission, he worked on the firststereoanaglyph based on images of (486958) Arrokoth that were captured by the spacecraft.[195]
In 2020, he participated in the team that contributed the stereography images of numerical simulations of asteroid disruptions and re-accumulations in a publication in the peer-reviewed journalNature Communications byMichel, P. et al. (2020) presenting a scenario of formation of the asteroids(101955) Bennu and(162173) Ryugu, visited by NASAOSIRIS-REx and JAXAHayabusa2 probes, respectively.[197] He was awarded the JAXA Hayabusa2 Honor Award for his contribution by making stereoscopic images of Ryugu.[198][199][200]
In 2021, he contributed the stereography images of the structural stability of double asteroid(65803) Didymos, the target of the NASADART and ESAHera missions, in a publication in the peer-reviewed journalIcarus by DART and Hera team members.[201] He is also on the advisory board of theNEO-MAPP project (Near-Earth-Object Modelling and Payloads for Protection), funded by the European Union.[202]
From 1976 to 1988, May was married to Christine Mullen.[19] They had three children.[19] They separated in 1988. May met actressAnita Dobson in 1986. She inspired him to write the 1989 hit "I Want It All". They married on 18 November 2000.[208]
He has said in interviews that he had depression in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the point of contemplating suicide,[209] for reasons having to do with his troubled first marriage, his perceived failure as a husband and father, and the deaths of Mercury and his father Harold.[210]
According toThe Sunday TimesRich List of 2019, May is worth £160 million.[211] He has homes in London andWindlesham, Surrey.[212] May's father Harold was a long-time heavy cigarette smoker.[22] As a result, May dislikes smoking,[213] to the point where he was already prohibiting smoking indoors at his concerts before many countries imposedsmoking bans.[214]
May is a long-term champion of woodland as a haven and "corridor" for wildlife—both in Surrey, where he has a house,[219] and elsewhere. In 2012, he bought land threatened by building development atBere Regis, Dorset, and, in 2013 and with the enthusiastic support of local villagers,[220] initiated a project to create an area of woodland, now called May's Wood (or "the Brian May Wood").[221] The wood consists of 157 acres (64 ha), formerly under the plough, planted by May's team of co-workers with 100,000 trees. May's Wood is said to be flourishing.[222][223]
In 2013, a new species of the genusHeteragrion (Odonata: Zygoptera) from Brazil was namedHeteragrion brianmayi—one of fourHeteragrion flatwingdamselflies named after the bandmates, paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Queen's founding.[224]
May experienced a small heart attack in May 2020. It required the insertion of threestents into three blocked arteries. May said he had been "very near death".[225] In September 2024, he stated that he had suffered a minor stroke which rendered him temporarily without use of his left arm, though May said he was still able to play guitar.[226]
In 2013, May joined French guitar playerJean-Pierre Danel for a charity Danel launched for the benefit ofanimal rights in France. The guitarists signed guitars and art photos together, and were joined by Hank Marvin.[228]
May outside theHouses of Parliament in London during a June 2013 anti-badger cull demonstration
Prior to the2015 general election, it was reported that May was considering standing as anindependent Member of Parliament. It was also revealed that May had started a "Common Decency" project "to re-establish common decency in our lives, work and Parliament". May said he wanted to "get rid of the current government" and wished to see aHouse of Commons containing "individuals voting according to their conscience".[229] May was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of theGreen Party'sCaroline Lucas at the election.[230] He also endorsed a Conservative Party candidate,Henry Smith, on the grounds of his animal welfare record.[231]
In July 2015, May criticised UK Prime MinisterDavid Cameron for giving members of parliament a free vote on amending the ban on fox hunting in England and Wales. During a live television interview, he described the pro-hunting organisation theCountryside Alliance as "a bunch of lying bastards" for their support for a change to the law.[232] The government postponed the vote following the intervention of theScottish National Party's Westminster MPs, who committed to vote to keep the ban as it existed. May told anti-hunt protesters in a rally outside Parliament that it was "a very, very important day for our democracy" but added "we have not yet won the war, there's no room for complacency".[233]
In June 2017, May endorsedLabour Party leaderJeremy Corbyn in the2017 general election. May shared an article on Twitter byThe Independent headlined "Jeremy Corbyn says Fox hunting is 'barbarity' and pledges to keep it banned"[234] and captioned it: "Well, I guess that just about clinches it !! Anyone see any good reason not to prefer the evidently decent Corbyn over the weak and wobblyMrs May? Bri".[235]
In October 2018, May said, "I don't like all this separatist stuff and you know this sort of illusion that we can all stand on our own, to me the future lies in co-operation. I get up every day and put my head in my hands aboutBrexit – I think it's the stupidest thing we ever tried to do." He also said that Prime MinisterTheresa May was "driven by vanity and thirst for power".[236]
In the run-up to the2019 United Kingdom general election May criticised what he saw as the poor conduct of the media and declined to endorse either candidate, stating that he found it "impossible" to vote for either Jeremy Corbyn orBoris Johnson.[237] After the election in which the Conservatives won a majority, May vowed to continue fighting for animal welfare but in anInstagram and blog post he urged his followers to congratulate Johnson and "wish Boris a decent chance to rebuild Britain" before praising reforms to animal welfare laws made byConservative Party Environment SecretaryMichael Gove.[238][239] In 2021 May criticised Johnson for his response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, calling it inadequate.[240]
In 2010, May formed an animal welfare organisationSave Me (named after theMay-written Queen song). It campaigns for the protection of wild animals with a particular emphasis on preventing hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers. May has commented that "to this day, nobody has been able to prove a mechanism for the transfer ofbTB from badger to cow" and has suggested that culling badgers has no benefit.[16] The group's primary concern is to ensure that theHunting Act 2004 and other laws protecting animals are retained in situ.[72]
In an interview in September 2010 withStephen Sackur for the BBC'sHARDtalk programme, May said that he would rather be remembered for his animal welfare work than for his music or scientific work.[242] May is supporter of theInternational Fund for Animal Welfare, theLeague Against Cruel Sports,PETA UK and the Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue. In March 2012, May contributed the foreword to a target paper published by the think tank theBow Group, urging the government to reconsider its plans to cull thousands of badgers to controlbovine TB, stating that the findings of Labour's major badger culling trials, several years earlier, show that culling does not work. The paper was authored by Graham Godwin-Pearson with contributions by leadingtuberculosis scientists, includingLord Krebs.[243][244][245] This prefaced his 2024 documentary,Brian May: The Badgers, the Farmers and Me, the culmination of a four-year investigation into whether badger culling is necessary for bovine TB prevention.[246]
In October 2010, May received an award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare in recognition of his animal welfare work.[247]
In May 2013, May teamed up with actorBrian Blessed andFlash cartoonistJonti "Weebl" Picking, as well as animal welfare groups including theRSPCA, to form Team Badger, a "coalition of organisations that have teamed up to fight the planned cull of badgers".[248] With Weebl and Blessed, May recorded a single, "Save the Badger Badger Badger"—amashup of Weebl's viral 2003 Flash cartoonmeme, "Badger Badger Badger", and Queen's "Flash", featuring vocals by Blessed. On 1 September 2013, "Save the Badger Badger Badger" charted at No. 79 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 39 on the UKiTunes chart[249] and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock chart.[250] In June 2013 naturalist SirDavid Attenborough and rock guitaristSlash joined May to form a supergroup, Artful Badger and Friends, and released a song dedicated to badgers, "Badger Swagger".[251]
May is a former vice-president of the RSPCA. In September 2024, he resigned his position as vice-president after "damning evidence" emerged of animal welfare failings atRSPCA Assured farms.[252]
May has had a lifelong interest in collecting Victorianstereophotography. In 2009, with co-author Elena Vidal, he published his second book,A Village Lost and Found,[67] on the work of English stereophotography innovator T. R. Williams.[253] He was awarded TheRoyal Photographic Society's Saxby Medal in 2012 for achievement in the field of three-dimensional imaging.[254]
May made a significant technical contribution to the book to accompany the exhibition 'Stereoscopic Photographs of Pablo Picasso byRobert Mouzillat', held at theHolburne Museum inBath, England, from February to June 2014. The book provides photographs of Picasso in his studio, at a bullfight atArles, and in his garden. May's 3D Owl viewer is used to view the photographs in 3D.
The purchase of his first card in 1973 started May on a lifelong and worldwide search forLes Diableries,[255] which are stereoscopic photographs depicting scenes of daily life in Hell. On 10 October 2013[256] the bookDiableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell by Brian May, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming was published.[257]
In 2017, May publishedQueen in 3-D,[258] chronicling the group's 50-year history. It contains over 300 of his own stereoscopic photos and is the first book about the band published by one of its members. Included with the book is May's patented OWL Stereoscopic Viewer.[259]
In 2021, May was awarded an honorary fellowship and Denis Pellerin was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Literature from the Royal Holloway College, University of London.[260][261] The conferred degrees recognised their work to preserve Victorian stereoscopy through the London Stereoscopic Company. It recognises their contribution to photography and preservation.
In the 2018 biographical filmBohemian Rhapsody, he was portrayed byGwilym Lee.[262] May himself served as a creative and musical consultant for the film, and worked especially closely with Lee.[263]
^Fitzpatrick, Rob. "'I'm The Antichrist of Music' Immensely popular for decades, yet a permanent resident on music's outermost fringes of fashionability, Phil Collins would like to apologise. Are you ready to forgive?".FHM. April 2011.
^"New Chancellor confirmed".Ljmu.ac.uk. Liverpool John Moores University. 23 November 2007. Archived fromthe original on 6 September 2010. Retrieved24 October 2011.
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