Queen’s Brian May Suffers Stroke

Brian May, the rock music legend, recently suffered a stroke. The Queen guitarist revealed the news in a video shared on his official website and YouTube channel. In the clip, he described the stroke as “minor” and his ability to play guitar has returned.

“I’m here to bring you first of all some good news, I think, good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” he said, as transcribed by the Associated Press. “And I say this because it was in some doubt because that little health hiccup that I mentioned, happened about a week ago, and what they called it was a minor stroke and all of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control over this arm.”

May went on to note that he’s not looking for sympathy around his health scare, and he told fans he’s now following doctors’ orders to avoid stress and any activity that could raise his heart rate.

“(The) good news is I’m OK, just doing what I’m told which is basically nothing,” May said. “I’m grounded. 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 … but I’m good.”

This stroke is not the first health scare May has faced in recent years. Since 2020, he has suffered a heart attack, faced a “very horrible” bout of COVID-19, and was hospitalized after a painful gardening mishap.

May was one of the founding members of Queen alongside Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor. (Mainstay John Deacon replaced original drummer Mike Grose in 1971.) His guitar playing can be heard on all the band’s iconic tracks, such as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions.” He still tours as Queen alongside Taylor, with American Idol alum Adam Lambert serving as vocalist. Gwilym Lee portrayed May in the 2018 Mercury biopic Bohemain Rhapsody.