Brian May was born in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, England back in 1947 and started his musical career still back in the 60s, when he was a teenager. After being in the band Smile with the drummer Roger Taylor, they went on to form Queen alongside Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, becoming one of the best-selling bands of all time. Their line-up was the same for 20 years until Freddie’s passing in 1991 at the age of 45.
May’s guitar playing was crucial to the band’s sound and he inspired countless artists. Over the decades he talked about many of his peers and even said who, in his opinion, is a guitar God.
The musician whom Brian May called a “Guitar God”
The Queen guitarist and co-founder was elected back in 2020 by a poll organized by Total Guitar, the greatest guitar player of all time. Although he was happy about the votes he received, he didn’t agree that he was the best one in history. In an interview with the magazine, May mentioned many other players he admired, including Pete Townshend. He praised The Who‘s guitarist and main songwriter as being a guitar God.
“I’d seen feedback, I’d seen Pete Townshend – again, wow! Pete Townshend’s a god of guitar and always will be! I’d seen him stand there and let the guitar explode into life on its own,” Brian May said.
The Queen member had always been a huge fan of The Who and had the chance to see the band performing live in their prime, when he wasn’t a famous artist yet. In an interview with BBC radio 2 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) in 2019, Brian May talked about the year of 1969, when he was 22. One of the high points of that year, according to him, was to go and see The Who playing live.
“They came from Shepherd’s Bush. Very much a local phenomenon for us and we used to go and see them. Rog(er Taylor) and me. It was about the most dangerous concert you could ever go to. Because you never knew if they would turn up, to start with.”
Brian May continued:
“And when they did turn up it was mayhem let loose. It was just so loud, dangerous and anarchic, I guess. This was long before Punk. So I think The Who kind of wrote the recipe for Punk, if you like. So they played local to us and we went to see them a lot. We followed them, we loved them. They ripped out the rulebook,” Brian May said.
Brian May had the chance to share the stage later on with some The Who members. The first one was the bassist John Entwistle, with whom he performed in 1985 at a New Orleans night Club in Louisiana, United States. They were simply accompanied on stage that night by the guitarist Eddie Van Halen.
Then in 1992, The Who’s vocalist Roger Daltrey was part of the Freddie Mercury tribute concert. He performed the track “I Want It All” with Queen and the guitarist Tony Iommi.