Queen co-founder and drummer Roger Taylor mentioned John Deacon in a new interview, describing him as a “real recluse” these days. “John is a real recluse. I think he speaks to our lawyers and our accountant and that’s it. I really don’t know what John is doing now. He’s probably sitting in a room somewhere, counting his money,” he told Classic Rock.
The drummer had previously said that he hadn’t spoken to Deacon since 2004 and that there had never been any feud between the bassist, Brian May and him. “No we don’t actually (talk to him). John has sort of consciously excluded himself from the world. He doesn’t like engaging in contact with anybody I think. I think he’s very fragile and we respect that. Although he’s still obviously our sort of business partner in a way; our silent business partner.”
Roger Taylor continued:
“He enjoys the financial rewards, but he really doesn’t want anything to do with the music industry anymore. I don’t think he feels he wants to handle it and all the stuff that goes with it. So no we don’t keep in touch actually,” Roger Taylor said in an interview with Express UK in 2020. Since the death of Queen’s vocalist Freddie Mercury in 1991, bassist John Deacon played only three shows, all of them in the 1990s. He also was part of the recording of the song “No One But You (Only The Good Die Young)”.
Queen ended up touring with Paul Rodgers (Bad Company, Free) as the vocalist from 2004 to 2009 and they even recorded new album. Nowadays the rockstars Brian May and Roger Taylor tour with Adam Lambert on vocals. John Deacon didn’t want to be in the band in these two opportunities. However, he is always consulted for approval of any work related to the band, like the 2018 film “Bohemian Rhapsody”.