Don’t Stop Him Now: Queen's Brian May on Yungblud, recovering from a stroke, losing Ozzy and taking fans on an exploration through space

For someone who had a worryingly close shave last year, Queen guitarist Sir Brian May shows little sign of slowing down.

From gracing the stage with backflipping pop star Benson Boone at Coachella and the O2, to lending his regal lead guitar playing to a recent single by retro rockers The Struts, May’s busy schedule isn’t filled with the sort of activities you’d expect from someone who suffered a stroke last summer — one severe enough to leave him temporarily unable to use his left arm.

“I’m doing pretty good right now, but it did slow me down for a while, I have to confess,” May concedes, as he details some of the lifestyle changes he has since adopted.

“I still work ridiculous hours, but I sleep more now. I don’t know if it’s a post-Covid thing, but I just have these times where I have to switch off — like a machine that’s run out of battery.”

May formed Queen in 1970 alongside legendary frontman Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, with bassist John Deacon joining a year later. The four-piece went on to become one of the biggest-selling acts of all time, thanks to stadium anthems like “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”.

Despite Mercury’s death in 1991, Queen’s music has endured in a way many of their contemporaries haven’t. Recently named the most played rock act of the 21st century on UK radio and TV — ahead of the likes of U2 and Oasis — it’s a feat that can’t be fully explained by the success of 2018’s Oscar-winning biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Hot space

That enduring legacy has also allowed May to continue exploring new creative avenues of his own. For his latest project, the 78-year-old has put his iconic Red Special guitar to one side and combined two of his earliest loves: space and the world of 3D photography.

We caught up with Brian at the launch of his new book Islands in Infinity: Galaxies 3D at the Museum of Brands in Notting Hill. Years in the making, it’s a coffee-table tome created by May alongside astronomer Professor Derek Ward-Thompson, exploring the universe through mesmerising stereoscopic renderings of galaxies previously only seen as flat ‘mono’ images.

May famously dropped out of the astrophysics PhD he was studying at Imperial College in the early ’70s in order to gig with an early version of Queen, eventually completing his doctorate decades later.

His interest in 3D imagery stems even further back. “I used to enjoy having Weetabix as a kid for breakfast, and when you opened the packet in those days, you always got a toy or something really cool,” he explains.

“I once got this card with two images of a hippopotamus with its mouth open and a 3D viewer, and it felt like I could kind of disappear down his throat.

“I just couldn't believe the reality of it. I felt like I actually touched this animal, and I've been hooked ever since. Basically, you’re using your two eyes for the purpose for which they were made.”

He has since gone on to found his own London Stereoscopic Company, whose publishing arm has released several books — including a stereo picture-led retrospective of Queen’s career — brought to life using Owl viewing glasses that he personally designed.

"Pushing the boundaries further than they’ve ever been pushed"

This new effort seems particularly special to the guitarist. Both accessible and beguiling, he hopes the book will be an entry point for people curious about what may lie beyond our own planet.

Key to bringing the cosmos alive in the book are the incredible 3D images created by Finnish astro-photographer J-P Metsavainio, whose mosaic of the Northern Milky Way was created over twelve years and required 1,500 hours of exposure.

“It’s pushing the boundaries further than they’ve ever been pushed by anyone. With everyday objects — like a pen or something — you can make a 3D picture very easily, but it gets harder as you get further away from your object.

“J-P has a technique where he applies data to that image to create the parallax differences you would otherwise only get if you were standing with your eyes thousands of light years apart. It’s incredible.”

Good company

While May has lived to tell the tale after his health crisis, 2025 has been a year where several musical titans have sadly fallen — none more seismic for the rock world than the death of Ozzy Osbourne back in July, just weeks after the Prince of Darkness fronted Black Sabbath one final time at the huge Back to the Beginning concert.

May was in attendance in support of his old pal and fellow guitar slinger Tony Iommi, and admits the event brought bittersweet memories flooding back of the similarly star-studded Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley, which took place following his bandmate’s death over three decades ago.

“I was just very happy to be there,” Brian explains. “Tony is a very, very dear friend of mine and has been for so many years, so I saw some of it through his eyes, I suppose, and I felt like I needed to be there.

“I enjoyed it all, I must say. And it was wonderful to see Ozzy rise to that occasion and make it. It was clearly an amazingly emotional experience for him and for the audience.

“I think a lot of people were quite critical of Sharon for kind of pushing him to do it. But in my opinion she was right, ’cause that’s the way he would have wanted to go.

“I had a little chat with him immediately after the show, and it was clear he had not an ounce of energy left in him. He had given everything to that performance.”

While a steady stream of anecdotes about Ozzy’s rock ’n’ roll bat-biting hijinks emerged following his passing, Brian’s abiding memory of the singer is an altogether more wholesome one.

“I’ll tell you a strange thing. For some reason — this is odd — but every time my first wife and I had a baby on the way, we were with Ozzy, and I don’t know why that happened. Each time, he put a hand near my wife’s tummy and said, ‘It’s gonna be a boy,’ or ‘It’s gonna be a girl,’ and every time he was right!

“So, what can I tell you? Maybe Ozzy had some kind of sixth sense. It was very memorable, and I often think about it.”

Knighting the next generation of rock

One of the standout performers at Sabbath’s swansong was Yungblud, whose show-stealing rendition of Ozzy’s signature tune “Changes” led many to compare his stage presence to that of Mercury.

May has been a long-term admirer and supporter of the punk pop star and reveals plans had been afoot for him to perform with Yungblud during the Sabbath gig.

“It didn’t work out because of his schedules, and it’s fine. I didn’t need to push myself for anything, but I would like to have been up there, I guess, for Ozzy and Tony. But sometimes these things are meant to be and sometimes not.”

His enthusiasm for Yungblud isn’t shared by another of his protégés, The Darkness, with frontman Justin Hawkins and his guitarist brother Dan becoming embroiled in an online feud with the Doncaster singer-songwriter after accusing him of being inauthentic.

“Obviously, I love The Darkness — Justin and Dan I both love,” May explains diplomatically. “But to me, I would go so far as to say that Yungblud is the future of rock and roll, just because he has that quality that you can’t learn.

“You can’t go to rock star school to become Yungblud — it has to be in you. He’s got a great voice, incredible passion, and wonderful connection with the audience — he kills! I think he’s amazing.”

Rumours persist of new Queen music being on the way featuring Adam Lambert on vocals for the first time, with Taylor recently revealing they have been in the studio recording with the former American Idol runner-up. May is keeping shtum on that front, but his familiar lead guitar tone will be gracing the airwaves this holiday period on a new Christmas song.

No stranger to Yuletide playlists thanks to Queen’s ’80s hit “Thank God It’s Christmas”, May is hoping for another assault on the festive charts with “Praise Your Name”, a gospel-tinged single recorded with long-time collaborator Talia Dean that features a trademark May solo.

Speaking of the track, which he also helped produce, May says, “We’ve been secretly working on this since before last Christmas — it’s been worth the wait,” adding, “Watch this space — there’s much more to come.”

Islands in Infinity: Galaxies 3-D, published by the London Stereoscopic Company, is available now from here.

Praise Your Name by Talia featuring Brian May is available to download here.

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