BRIAN
MAY
THE MAKING OF A STYLE
by Mike Mettler
E
ven the most highly successful,
storied champions of the guitar
can experience self-doubt all
throughout their careers. Take Brian
May, king of the fretboard in Queen,
and the man responsible for scores of
gargantuan riffs in regally indelible songs
like “We Are the Champions,” “Killer Queen,”
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Tie Your Mother
Down,” and “Dragon Attack.”
In fact, you might even think that May —
who literally constructed his own signature
sound by designing a home-built electric
guitar that’s known far and wide as The Red
Special and is also quite the scholarly man
with a PhD in physics — would be someone
who’s supremely confident about his royal
prowess on the fretboard but you’d be
dead wrong.
“I’m always slightly dissatisfied with the
sound I’ve gotten on record, to be truthful,”
May admits. “Sometimes it was close, like on
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GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
DIGITAL EDITION
Brian May by Rick Gould
MAY / JUNE