Queen guitarist Brian May recently revealed in a conversation with SiriusXM’s Debatable that having all these different perspectives was the best part of Queen’s music. Still, it was also the thing that almost split them.
As one of the most versatile rock bands of all time, Queen has appealed to a wide range of audiences with their high-quality records. Freddie Mercury’s charisma as a stunning frontman and Brian May’s fantastic guitar work was also among the things that took the group to the next level, but the variety of their music was probably the most striking feature of the band.
The band’s original lineup featuring Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon managed to stay together for many years, which is not very common in the music industry. All of them contributed to the songwriting process and wrote some hit songs. Besides that, all four were talented musicians who liked experimenting with new musical ideas and styles.
During the interview, Brian May was asked what made Queen’s music that timeless. The guitarist replied by saying that it had a lot to do with the inner dynamics of the band. They were all very eager to leave a mark on the music scene, which led to tough competition. However, for May, this shared passion also was helpful to push each other for the better. May explained that what is best about Queen’s music is to have all these diverse musical perspectives, but it could also have ended them as it was hard to tolerate them all the time.
When asked about the timelessness of Queen’s music, Brian May replied:
“I think it has a lot to do with the inner dynamics of the band. We were four very precautious young boys, all trying to put out imprint on the paintings that we were creating in the studio with four brushes. The competition was intense; also, the collaboration was intense, and that kind of insane belief that we had something that no one else had ever had before.
There was that glue and that sort of spirit of Queen reaching for somewhere which had been inaccessible until that moment so I think that’s the stuff that fuels us, the stuff that fueled what is the best about Queen music is also the stuff which nearly blew it apart because it was hard to harness all those different points of view and different ways of seeing things and keep it all together.”
You can listen to the entire conversation below.
