Queen Guitarist Brian May Experiences Major Health Scare
If you were making a list of the greatest bands of all time, it’s a safe bet that Queen would rank very high. Each member of the band is an icon in their own right, which is why it was so distressing to learn that one of the band members recently experienced a major health scare. Queen guitarist Brian May recently revealed via video that he had a minor stroke that kept him from using his left arm but that he has fortunately already recovered.
Those who are understandably worried about Brian May’s health should know that the guitarist was in very good spirits when revealing both his stroke and his recovery. He admitted that it was “a little scary” when it happened, though, largely because he didn’t know exactly what was going on. “All of a sudden…I didn’t have any control over this arm,” he said.
Even after that initial fright, though, Bryan May thought of what he had experienced as “a little health hiccup.” When he got a medical opinion on the matter, though, doctors told him that this was much more serious than the guitarist imagined. The good doctors at Frimley Hospital in Surrey told May that what he experienced was, in fact, a minor stroke.
Those who are understandably worried about Brian May’s health should know that the guitarist was in very good spirits when revealing both his stroke and his recovery.
He employed some of his usual dry humor when describing his trip, saying that he went to the hospital with “blue lights flashing, the lot–very exciting.” However, Brian May grew more serious when discussing both his gratitude toward these doctors and the instructions they gave him in order to improve his health. “So, the good news is I’m OK,” he said, noting that “I’m just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing.”
That may sound like a pretty easygoing diagnosis, but in this case, doing “nothing” really put a damper on the Queen guitarist’s rock and roll lifestyle. Brian May said that he was effectively “grounded,” which meant he had to follow a series of restrictions in order to regain his full health. “I’m not allowed to go out–well, I’m not allowed to drive, not allowed to get on a plane, not allowed to raise the heart rate too high.”
Because he filmed the video outside, there was a point in the video when a plane flying overhead could be very clearly heard. At this point, Brian May’s sense of humor about his health returned as he cheekily claimed, “I’m not allowed to have planes flying over, which will stress me. But I’m good.”
Obviously, we respect Brian May’s decision to not immediately rush out and tell the world about his health scare, but hearing about it afterward was a real emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end.
In this case, all’s well that ends well with Brian May’s health scare. He reassured fans that he could still play guitar after recovering from the stroke and went on to explain why he didn’t tell his many fans about the stroke when it happened: “I really don’t want sympathy.” Driving the point home, the guitarist even explicitly told the world not to send him sympathetic thoughts via email “because it’ll clutter up my inbox and I hate that.”
In this case, all’s well that ends well with Brian May’s health scare.
Obviously, we respect Brian May’s decision to not immediately rush out and tell the world about his health scare, but hearing about it afterward was a real emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. The legendary musician may have a sense of humor about all of this, and as the writer of “Who Wants To Live Forever” (one of the better songs on the Highlander soundtrack A Kind of Magic, and that’s saying quite a bit), the guitarist likely has a very mellow idea of his own mortality.
As for us, though, we’re glad nobody will be playing “Another One Bites the Dust” in memoriam anytime soon, and we wish the guitarist all the best as he continues to recover.
Source: BrianMay.com
