Brian May is getting ready to drop his ‘Star Fleet Project‘ deluxe box set for its 40th anniversary on July 14. Before the release, he posted an interview on his YouTube channel, talking about his 1983 team-up with Eddie Van Halen. During the chat, the Queen guitarist gave a peek into how he felt about the late musician and said:
“Me being in the studio with Ed, I was in awe. I mean, I gotta be honest. I was. I was in awe. I just thought, ‘Wow! What an amazing thing!'”
The guitarist explained whether there was jealousy in their relationship by saying:
“It would be easy to kinda go down the road of being jealous, you know, resenting someone who can do something you can’t do. But for some reason, that doesn’t really happen with guitar players. I’d never seen it happen because we all do different stuff, and we all enjoy each other’s stuff.”
Then, he added:
“So, though I felt like I’m in the presence of a god here, there was also this feeling of pure joy, pure joy. Just being in the room with that guy and being able to play stuff to him and hear him respond. You can hear us doing it. What a treat. What an absolutely unrepeatable, unique experience that was.”
May announced his plans for the soon-to-come ‘Star Fleet Sessions (Deluxe)’ box set last year. Later, in an interview with Variety, he talked about the project and revealed how it felt to work on the album after Van Halen’s passing.
He also confessed his regret about their relationship and said:
“And I’ve been talking to Alex [Van Halen] and started thinking about how I wish I had stayed closer to Ed. I have a huge regret about that. He was a wonderful soul – a Peter Pan who never grew up, never wanted to grow up, and never should have grown up.”
You can watch Brian May’s full interview in the video below.
