"The nice thing about guitar playing is that everybody's different. - Brian says-You can't really rank people. Of course I've got my favorites too. But the fact that people put me in that position makes me smile. It's a lovely feeling."
"I'm not in the first million guitarists in the world; I know that. There's people I listen to every day that do things that I could never do."
When it came time to name who he thought was the greatest guitarist of all-time, May spread the wealth.
"I listen to Nuno Bettencourt and I just smile because it's so beautiful and it's so way out of what I could ever do. It doesn't bother me, 'cause I don't feel in competition. I just love the guy and I love what he does. Same with Jeff Beck. Same with Ed Van Halen. We worked together, and it was the most wonderful experience. My jaw dropped every time he touched the strings. It was just beautiful," recalled May.
He continued, "There are so many wonderful guitarists. Steve Vai is just colossal, beautiful. And of course I still have my old heroes. Eric Clapton is still my hero. Jimi Hendrix is still my hero. Of course — it's always gonna be that way. Jeff Beck, to me, is something so exceptional and outside anything you could have imagined." (Loudwire reports)
Queen recently launched 'The 50-week Youtube series called Queen: The Greatest Live', is set to offer fans an insight into their live on the road.
In the first episode of the new series, Brian May and Roger Taylor talk about the process they go through in rehearsals and how they put setlists together.
“Rehearsing with Roger is always a bit of a surprise because you don’t know how much you’re going to remember and you don’t know if it’s still going to feel the same,” said May [transcribed by Classic Rock]. “But it’s surprising how stuff does flow back into you, into your veins once you start kicking stuff around.”
“Normally we play a song through and see if it works, if we think it’s going to work live, and they don’t always work live,” added Taylor. “Some of them just, they’re not suited really for an exciting or involving, engaging performance, a live performance. So there’s quite a few songs we’ve never played live that have been on albums and probably for good reason.”
Brian May says they have asked John Deacon to rejoin Queen 'more than once'
Brian May has revealed that he and Roger Taylor "have asked Roger Deacon to rejoin Queen more than once" in a powerful new interview. Watch the rock legend discuss classic moments from the band's history.
Brian was asked what is the relationship now between him and Roger Taylor with John Deacon. Did he think John would ever re-emerge into the public eye to reunite with the band? Brian said: "I think not. Of course, we love John and we will always will, but we don’t have any significant contact with him now. That’s the way he wants it. He wanted to cut that tie and to be a private person and we have to respect that."
So, there is no chance of a public reunion as part of the band? "No, I don’t that is going to happen sadly. I’d love to say yes but I don’t think it would."
The rock group's guitarist has recalled how painful it was listening to Freddie - who died from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS in November 1991 aged 45 - singing on the recordings he worked on for the 'We Will Rock You' hitmakers' first and only LP released following the music icon's passing, 1995's 'Made In Heaven'.
