Brian May has made one thing clear: as far as he’s concerned, Queen are done touring.
It’s not a conclusion he came to recently, he explained to The Times: “I made a decision 18 months ago that I didn’t want to tour again. A close family friend died when we were in the States, so I said to my tour manager, ‘I’ll just nip home for a few days and come back.’ She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘You know you can’t do that.’
“I love to play, I love to travel, but the trade-off is sacrificing your freedom. I have a wife, grandchildren and a lot of astrophysics I want to do, so I’m thinking maybe 50 years is enough.”
Here’s What Brian May Does Want to Do
To be fair, May emphasized that Queen will carry in some way, it just may be through less traditional — and more innovative — methods.
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“We do want to do something fairly revolutionary,” May continued. “Not as ABBA did [with digital avatars], but along those lines. … Last year I went to the Sphere, my juices started flowing and I sketched out a whole Queen show. I think an immersive experience is still on the cards and it could conquer time and space, but currently you can’t make it without AI and I have serious misgivings about that. … Data centers are a massive evil and have to be fought.”
What Does Roger Taylor Think?
Queen drummer Roger Taylor also doesn’t know what the future looks like as far as live performing.
“Well, it is a big machine to gear up, if you know what I mean,” he said on BBC Radio 2 back in July. “But, yeah, really, I think it’s more down to Brian than me. I love playing live. I enjoy it, always have. … So if we both wanna do it, I’d be happy to. But we’ll see. Never say never.”
Below see Queen as part of Loudwire’s Best Rock Song of Each Year Since 1970 gallery.
Best Rock Song of Each Year Since 1970
Rock will always continue to roll.
Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire
