The Queen guitarist explains why he was a little worried how the band’s iconic frontman would react about the news of May recording solo material.In an interview with Goldmine, Queen guitarist Brian May explains that he was a little worried how the band’s iconic frontman Freddie Mercury would react about the news of May recording solo material.

Brian May: It was very unexpected, because I was feeling a little uncomfortable and worried. Because we know that Fred is in trouble; we don’t know how long he has left. And it’s obviously threatening our future. And in every way the “Driven By You” thing didn’t come out of anything to do with that. It just came from left field.Nevertheless, I’m sitting on a record, which I’m thinking of putting out as a solo artist. And Queen is perhaps on the verge of crumbling, and Freddie’s perhaps on the verge of not being able to carry on at all. With this in mind, I played it to Freddie. I also thought, you know, maybe it’s a Queen song. That’s the way I thought, anyway. A lot of songs I wrote, which were very personal at the time, became Queen songs, like “Headlong.” A lot of songs which could easily have been my solo tracks became Queen material.

So I played it to him and said, “What do you think?” He said, “I think it’s great. It’s full of energy. It is amazing.” And I said, “Do you think it should be a Queen song? Do you want to sing it?” He went, “Darling, you sing it just beautifully. You don’t need me to sing it. You should go for it.” And then he took the conversation to a different place, which I wasn’t going to do. And he said, “Look, I know you’re feeling uncomfortable. I know you’re worried about this because you know the situation I’m in. You shouldn’t. Don’t feel this at all. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We know that we don’t know how long I have, or the group has. What you should be doing is thinking about a solo career. So don’t feel in any way inhibited. Put it out, enjoy it and start off your solo journey in this way. That’s what you should be doing.” So it was kind of like a blessing and as soon as I walked out the room, I thought, “Wow, that’s not what I expected.” But it was very typical of Freddie, who was very generous and very unselfconscious. I never heard that man complain about being sick and his life being taken away from him by this awful disease. So, yeah, that kind of gave me the power to get out there.You can get the full Brian May feature in the back issue of Goldmine print magazine.