Interview: Brian May of Queen
Led by the eccentric genius of charismatic frontman Freddie Mercury, the British band Queen scored a string of hits with an inventive mix of heavy rock, opera, and vaudeville, ranging from the jock-rock anthem "We Will Rock You" to the six-minute epic "Bohemian Rhapsody," one of the most complex songs in the rock canon. The band's popularity in America waned after its early-'80s heyday, and it spent the next decades focused on the rest of the world. For the first time in nearly 25 years, Queen is touring America, with an unlikely replacement for Mercury (who died of AIDS in 1991) in the far more bluesy Paul Rodgers of Bad Company fame. The A.V. Club's Adri Mehra caught up with guitarist Brian May just before he left for the States. This interview first appeared in The A.V. Club's Twin Cities print edition.
The A.V. Club: Queen hasn't toured the U.S. since 1982. Any anxiety about this tour?
Brian May: It is a big unknown. It has been a long, long, long, long time! It's a pretty massive show in lights and sound, and of course there are a lot more toys we can call upon now than in the old days. It's an incredibly exciting opportunity—I never thought we'd be doing this again. I really thought that part of my life was over, and I didn't realize we'd have the chance to do it at this level ever again.
AVC: Any special challenges about coming back to America?
BM: There are an awful lot of hits that happened for us between 1980 and the present day that happened in most of the rest of the world, but didn't in America. So, if we play something like "I Want It All," "Headlong," "The Show Must Go On" or "These Are the Days Of Our Lives"— in almost any other country, these songs will elicit a response, because they've been in people's lives intimately. Whereas in the States, they weren't in people's ears on the radio. We don't have those essential points of contact. That's what I'm conscious of. How much do we play just to be ourselves, and how much do we play what people might want to hear?
AVC: Are there any mixed feelings? The last time you toured the U.S., Queen had just released a disco record [1982's Hot Space] at a time when people were publicly burning their disco records. The popularity of the band never recovered here, not until after Freddie Mercury died. Is it all water under the bridge now?
BM: I don't think about it much, to be honest with you. What I do think about is all the ground for us to make up, because of all that stuff that happened, and all the misunderstandings. I don't know if I'm really communicating it to you, but I feel a great responsibility to deliver a million percent on this tour—because of all of the ground that's been lost, I suppose.
AVC: How are you preparing for the tour?
BM: I've got to get physically fit—that's what I've got to do! [Laughs.] I really did get taken off guard the last time we were out [in Europe and Japan]. I didn't do enough. It's such a huge shock to your system when you're not used to that kind of thing. We do two and a half hours onstage, as you know, and it's not standing there and being cool—it's rushing around, and pretty intense. It almost killed me last time, so I'm determined that I'm going to be prepared this time.