The guitarist who almost made Brian May give up playing

Brian May is responsible, alongside Roger Taylorfor carrying the legacy of queen forward — even after the death of Freddie Mercury and the removal of John Deacon. Like his colleagues, he is extremely important to the band’s unique sound, one of the greatest in rock history.

Interestingly, this trajectory might not have existed. He almost gave up playing when he came across one of his idols.

In the late 1960s, May was a mathematics student at Imperial College London. Music was still a hobby, which led him to join the institution’s entertainment committee — a kind of student union focused on bringing attractions to play at school. It was through this role that he met one of his heroes: Jimi Hendrix.

Brian told Classic Rockin 2020, how was your contact with Hendrixin this case in the role of one of those responsible for putting on the show. He remembers that the presentation cost the institution one thousand pounds sterling.

According to the guitarist of queencontact, on the day of the event, was as follows:

They were inside (in the dressing room) making noise, smoking a bunch of joints. It was getting close to the time they were supposed to go on stage, so one of us knocked on the door and said, ‘It’s time, sir. Hendrix, it’s time to go’. He came out with a guitar and said, ‘where’s the stage, man?’. We all pointed in the direction without really saying anything, just impressed. That was my first conversation with him, if you can call it that.”

The Jimi Hendrix concert

At that time, Jimi Hendrix Experience it was the band of the moment and was revolutionizing rock. So, it was certainly something impressive to see live.

Brian May remember that the show started with “Foxy Lady” and he, very close to the stage, witnessed the group’s firepower on their best days. According to the member of the queen:

I was about 10 feet away when he played the first note. It was stupendous. I had never heard a sound like that in my life, before or since. I was already a devotee of Jimi, but that changed my life.”

It could have changed his life May for the worse. Throughout the presentation, Hendrixunintentionally, intimidated the then young guitarist, who seriously thought about abandoning the instrument.

Brian said:

I thought I could play guitar back then. I thought I was ok on guitar. But when you saw Hendrix, you really just wanted to give up. Or try harder. At first I looked at him and the equipment and thought, ‘well, he’s just a man, this is just a guitar and these are just amplifiers’. But when it started, it was like an earthquake. That’s not even enough to describe it. It was like the intersection of an earthquake, an orchestra and a whirlpool of sound.”

Brian May doesn’t give up

When he witnessed the presentation of Jimi Hendrixin 1967, Brian May he had already built his guitar Red Special and played in a band called 1984. The fact that he didn’t give up on music proved to be the right decision possible, since the following year he founded the Smileembryo of what would become the queenwhich came into existence in 1970.

Collaborated: André Luiz Fernandes.