Sir Dr. Brian Harold May Brian Harold May
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Brian May is the guitarist and primary songwriter for Queen, best known for hits like Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You. He built his custom-built Red Special guitar as a teenager with his father. In 2007, he completed his PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London after a gap of over 30 years. May was knighted in 2023 and continues to advocate for animal welfare.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Brian May — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Brian May by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Brian May — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Brian May attended Hampton Grammar School and earned a degree in physics and mathematics from Imperial College London. He was born on July 19, 1947 in Hampton, Middlesex. As a teen, May and his father built the Red Special guitar from household items, including a fireplace mantle and motorcycle valve springs, creating a unique instrument that defined his sound.
While at Imperial College, May formed the band Smile with drummer Roger Taylor. They were soon joined by Freddie Mercury, who renamed the band Queen, and bassist John Deacon completed the lineup. Queen’s breakthrough came with Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975, featuring May’s multi-tracked guitar solos. He wrote or co-wrote enduring hits like We Will Rock You, Tie Your Mother Down, and The Show Must Go On. May’s guitar work on his home-built Red Special combined virtuoso technique with melodic sensibility.
May married Chrissie May in 1976; they had three children: Jimmy born 1978, Louisa born 1981, and Emily Ruth born 1987. The couple divorced in 1988. He later married actress Anita Dobson in 2000 after meeting her at a preview screening of Down and Out in Beverly Hills. May has advocated for animal rights and served as Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University for five years.
Brian May ranks among the greatest guitarists in rock history, influencing generations with his work on Queen hits like Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You. His custom-built Red Special guitar and distinctive tone are recognizable. Queen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. May was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 and Knight Bachelor in 2023. Beyond music, his astrophysics PhD and work on zodiacal dust earned him respect in academia. He continues to perform and advocate for animal welfare, his influence spanning music and science.
Browse the complete filmography of Brian May — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Brian May — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Brian May's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Brian May — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I’ve Never Been Fashionable and I Never Will.
I Don’t Think Anyone Has Epitomised Riff Writing Better Than Jimmy Page He’s One of the Great Brains of Rock Music.
I’m a Much Better Musician Than Astronomer. I Think the World Got the Right Choice.
Sorry, TV Just Makes Me Feel Ill. Except the Good Stuff That Gets Imported, with Great Scripts, Great Lighting, Great Camera Angles, Innovative Effects, and Fabulous Editing. and the Simpsons. What Has Happened to Us?
I’m Feeling Rather Joyful. I Cannot Tell You How Much of a Weight off the Mind It Is. After His Assessors Approved of His Thesis and He Passed an Oral Exam.
I’m the World’s Biggest Led Zeppelin Fan. the Music, the Way They Conducted Themselves, Their Whole Management Structure They Were the Blueprint. Queen Always Used to Play the Immigrant Song in Sound Checks Just for the Glory of the Sound.
I Regard Planet Rock as Rather More Than Just a Radio Station It Is a Symbol of Free Radio … Radio Which Is Not Run by Large Corporate Organisations for the Purpose of Making Tons of Money, and Has a Free Choice of What It Plays.
I Think It’s Essential That You Have Things That You Get into Apart from Music. You Have to Maintain Your Balance.
I Am Dedicated to the Welfare of Animals. These Days I Spend More Time Campaigning for Animal Rights Than I Do on Music. My Biggest Difficulty Is Trying to Juggle Everything in My Life. Time Is a Big Problem. My Family Comes First, and Then My Devotion to Helping Animals. I Love Making Music, but I No Longer Have Much Time to Do That.
When I’m Gone, People Will No Doubt Remember Me for Queen, but I Would Much Rather Be Remembered for Attempting to Change the Way We Treat Our Fellow Creatures. That Would Be Something to Be Proud Of.
At One Point, I Was Really Very Suicidal. at Such Moments, It’s Only the Fact That I’ve Got Kids That Stops Me from Driving off Bridges.
Plenty of People Can Play the Drums, but to Be Able to Play Truly Sympathetically to the Song Is a Real Talent, and One That Roger Definitely Has. He’s a Very Musical Drummer and Has Great Skill on His Cymbals, Too. And, of Course, He’s so Much More Than Just a Drummer, Because as His Songwriting Developed He Also Became a Major Force in Creating Material for the Band.
When I Started Playing a Riff, Roger Just Joined In, and Something Immediately Happened Musically…I’d Never Encountered a Drummer Who Had the Ability to Sound so Broad and Big Before He Was Like an Orchestra and My Guitar Sound, Which Is Also Very Broad, Coupled with the Spectrum of His Drums, Just Gelled and We Sounded Complete.
I’ll Never Forget the First Time Roger and I Jammed Together Because, After We’d Set up Our Gear, He Started This Very Delicate Operation of Tuning His Drums. I Was Really Shocked I’d Never Seen Anyone Do That Before… All of the Drummers I’d Worked with Previously Just Hit the Things! It Was Like Roger Was Making His Drums Talk Though, and I Watched Fascinated as He Smoothly Transitioned from Tuning into Playing These Beautifully Controlled Little Press Rolls on His Snare. Again, so Different to the Bashers I Was Used To!
I Despise the Lottery. There’s Less Chance of You Becoming a Millionaire Than There Is of Getting Hit on the Head by a Passing Asteroid.
I Have Learned from My Time Inside Parliament Lobbying on Animal Welfare That It Is Still Hard for MPs to Go Against Their Own Leadership’s Plans, Even When It Is a Free Vote.
Michael Eavis Has Frequently Insulted Me, and I Don’t Really Particularly Enjoy That. What Bothers Me More Is That He’s in Favour of the Badger Cull, Which I Regard as a Tragedy and an Unnecessary Crime Against Wildlife. so No. There’s a Little Bit of a Schism There. I Wouldn’t Do Glastonbury Unless Things Changed Radically.
Little-known facts about Brian May — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
After more than three decades, Brian May successfully defended his astrophysics thesis on August 23, 2007, at Imperial College London. The dissertation, Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud, earned him his long-awaited doctorate.
For his guitar pick, May uses an old English sixpence coin. When these coins went out of circulation in the early 1970s, he had the Royal Mint produce more with his image in 1992.
The Red Special guitar was built from repurposed items: motorcycle valve springs, a knitting needle, mother-of-pearl buttons, and a discarded fireplace mantle. A 2018 book, Brian May’s Red Special: The Story of the Home-Made Guitar that Rocked Queen and the World, chronicles its creation.
In addition to writing Queen classics like We Will Rock You, Flash, Hammer to Fall, and The Show Must Go On, May holds a PhD in astrophysics and has an asteroid named after him. He is also an animal rights activist and served as chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.
May was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to music.
He holds an Erdos-Bacon-Sabbath number of 9, tying him with Carl Sagan—among the lowest on the planet.
He resumed his PhD in astronomy, updating research and data on the motion of interstellar dust for his dissertation.
Before Queen, May taught mathematics at Stockwell Park Secondary School in Stockwell, South West London.
He penned hits including Keep Yourself Alive, Thirty-Nine, Tie Your Mother Down, and Fat Bottomed Girls.
May opened the Queen’s Jubilee concert in 2002 by playing God Save The Queen from the top of Buckingham Palace.
He holds a PhD in Astrophysics from Imperial College, London.
May attended Imperial College, London University for a Bachelor of Science in physics and mathematics. He began a doctorate in astronomy but left to join Queen.
His astronomy PhD dissertation was submitted for review in mid-2007, with the degree conferred in May 2008.
May contributed a guitar solo to the song Bad For Good on Meat Loaf’s album Bat out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose.
Queen was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6356 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Queen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Two of May’s riffs were voted into Total Guitar Magazine’s poll of the 100 greatest riffs: Tie Your Mother Down at #84 and One Vision at #60.
May was installed as Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, replacing Cherie Blair.
Queen won the 2005 Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection.
He is close friends with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi.
May met his second wife at a preview screening of Down and Out in Beverly Hills 1986.
Queen was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for their outstanding contribution to British music.
May was very supportive of actor Gwilym Lee, who played him in the film Bohemian Rhapsody 2018. The two worked together on May’s guitar work; when May first saw Lee in costume, he was transfixed and made adjustments to Lee’s wig.
Guitarist with the rock group Queen.
Brian May and his ex-wife Chrissie May have three children: Jimmy born 1978, Louisa born 1981, and Emily Ruth born 1987.
He enjoys the music of younger bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, and Muse.
May embarked on a world tour with Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers as Queen + Paul Rodgers, marking the first time Queen performed in the US since 1982.
He counts Irish rock guitarist Rory Gallagher as a major influence on his guitar sound.
May is the only guest to feature on a Black Sabbath song, When Death Calls, from the 1987 album Headless Cross.
Brian made a guest appearance playing with rock band Marillion at Mungersdorfer Stadion, Cologne, West Germany.
He shares a birthday with fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Keith Godchaux Grateful Dead and Bernie Leadon Eagles.
May was knighted as Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to music and charity in Windlesham, Surrey. He is a musician, astrophysicist, and animal welfare advocate.
Queen + Paul Rodgers led a surprise North American tour from March 3 in Miami to April 13 in Vancouver, BC—the first Queen tour in North America since Freddie Mercury’s death.
He has performed with the SAS Spike Edney’s All Stars Band.
Among his guitar equipment is an amplifier assembled from old parts by Queen bassist John Deacon. Initially used by Deacon, May adopted it, and the sound became integral to the band.
As a member of Rock Against Repatriation, May collaborated with guitarists Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford, Phil Manzanera, Steve Rothery, and others for the charity single Sailing.
He attended the Genesis concert at Twickenham Stadium on July 8, 2007.
He left his wife Chrissie May for British soap actress Anita Dobson.
Not the same Brian May as the composer for many films.
Should not be confused with Australian composer Brian May.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Brian May.
Celebrities similar to Brian May — same craft, ranked by reach.
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