Brian May recently joined News 5 and detailed what it meant to have received the honor of knighthood and the one thing he’s definitely not doing again for the Royal family. Queen icon also shared the news on Instagram, celebrating being a knight in shining armor while advocating against badger hunting.
May, or maybe we should call him Sir Brian, recently received his knighthood from King Charles III at a lavish ceremony in Buckingham Palace. After the honors, the guitarist joined the press outside to open up about his joy of being a royal knight, discussing the friendship he and the king had formed over the years.
Sir Brian’s relations with the Royals go way back, and the reporter reminded the guitarist of the time he rocked on Buckingham’s roof, playing Britain’s national anthem while celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. May quickly noted that the incident was surely a career highlight for him, although jokingly disclosing it wasn’t something he would do again.
The guitarist recalling whose idea it was for him to play on Buckingham’s roof for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations:
“Well, it was partly my idea. They asked me to actually go through the palace rooms play my guitar, and I thought, ‘I can’t really do that…’ I can’t visualize it and said, ‘You know what? I could visualize myself on the roof like as the lone Piper as if I’d been there for fifty years of the Queen’s reign, fifty years of rock and roll.’
And they, this was on a phone conversation, went, ‘Okay, we’ll see if that could be done’ The phone goes down, and five minutes later, the phone rings and they say, ‘Yes, the palace is fine with that,’ and I thought, ‘Oh my god! What have I said… now we had to make it work which was difficult.’ It’s definitely a career highlight, and it’s definitely not something I’m doing again.”
Queen icon also shared the news clip on Instagram, discussing how surprised he was that his knighthood got significant media coverage. He then clarified that he intended to use his new honor and status as an activist, advocating against ‘blood sports’ and badger hunting, as the practice significantly harmed cattle farmers.’
May’s words on celebrating his knighthood and advocating against uncontrolled hunting:
“Yes, I’m a little quiet, following the investiture of me as a Knight of the Realm. But this little TV clip turned up. I’m not sure whither it’s from, but it does show the interior palace moment quite nicely. Thanks, Fanybary, for channelling it to me. I’m actually amazed at the coverage my knighthood got globally.
I’m hoping it will mean that more people will listen to me when I pitch in against government handling of the remains of blood sports and the shameful and utterly failed policy of slaughtering around a ‘quarter of a million’ badgers in the tragically mistaken belief that it would eradicate the miserable disease of bovine TB in cattle.
This year in the worst-hit TB region in the South-West, farmers saw an increase in herd breakdowns on the previous year – and there are virtually no badgers left… so nobody can cling to the belief that “it was the badgers” anymore. Yet still, the lunacy goes on.
Perhaps it needs a knight in the shining armour of common sense to actually bring focus back to the real reasons for the continuing misery of the cattle farmers. And perhaps even to bring compassion and decency to the countryside. Well, I’m ready, in harness.”
Brian seems to be on a mission as an activist who’ll do his best to advocate against the uncontrolled badger hunting all around his country, and surely, his recently received knighthood honors will help him on the way. So, it’s apparent that although he is pretty to have the good graces of the Royals, he’s not as excited to perform on roofs for future kings anymore.
