Queen’s Brian May recently gave an interview to Gary Davies for BBC Radio 2’s The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show. The guitarist revealed that Mott the Hopple taught them how to be a rock and roll band.
The guitarist released his second solo album, ‘Another World,’ in 1998. Although he initially planned it as a cover album, it later turned into a full album. The record included covers from May’s early influences like Jimi Hendrix, Larry Williams, and Mott the Hoople. Brian May has been very interested in making reissued versions of his previous albums nowadays.
He released a reissue of his 1992 album, ‘Back to the Light,’ on August 6, 2021, as part of the ‘Brian May Gold Series.’ Then, he also started to work on the reissued version of ‘Another World.’ As he announced before, the new version will finally arrive on April 22, 2022. It will feature a second disc of bonus tracks, titled ‘Another Disc,’ including new covers from Buddy Holly and Conway Twitty.
During his recent interview, the guitarist discussed the reissued edition of his album and said that it has a tribute to one of his biggest influences, Mott the Hoople, with whom they toured together back in 1974. Queen had opened for them when they were a little-known band. Brian May also revealed that they learned how to be a rock and roll band from Mott the Hoople, so they greatly influenced May and Queen’s future success.
Brian May speaking on the band that taught them how to be a rock and roll band:
“I did a few tributes to my heroes on this album. Jimi Hendrix, of course. The Shadows, there is a tribute to them on here. Mott the Hoople that we toured with is a fantastic band. We took the UK and then the States with them, and I think we learned how to be a rock and roll band from Mott the Hoople. Bless them, so you hear a bit of that on this album too. Lots of my kinds of influences and the reasons that I became what I became, and what I try to be.”
You can listen to the entire broadcast below.
