Queen’s Brian May knighted by King Charles
King Charles knighted Queen’s lead guitarist Brain May at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, March 14th, 2023.
The musician appeared on the 2023 New Year Honours list alongside the Lionesses following their victory at the European Championships last year. Their team captain Leah Williamson has been made an OBE, whereas her fellow England teammates Lucy Bronze, Beth Mead and Ellen White have been awarded MBEs.
Grayson Perry also received a knighthood, and Lissie Harper was made an MBE following her dedication to securing harsher sentences for the killers of emergency workers, influenced by the death of her husband, PC Andrew Harper.
Comedian Frank Skinner has been honoured with an MBE for services in entertainment, although he initially kept it secret from his family, believing it to be “some sort of administrative error”. Actor Stephen Graham has also received an OBE, and Dame Mary Quant, the designer of the iconic mini-skirt, has joined the Companions of Honour.
May’s honour comes less than a year after the late Queen Elizabeth II tapped along to the musician’s iconic hit ‘We Will Rock You’ in a video with Paddington Bear for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The guitarist was awarded the knighthood for his contributions to both music and charity. In pictures from the ceremony, May can be seen enthusiastically chatting with King Charles, who acceded to the throne in September following the death of his mother.
A picture posted to Instagram by May was captioned, “No words! Bri”. He told BBC News, “This is a kind of licence, a kind of commission to carry on doing what I’m doing, and it gives me a bit more power to my elbow. So I’m very happy about that.”
In other Queen-related news, May recently shared with Guitar World that the song ‘Now I’m Here’ was inspired by “the spirit of Zeppelin.” The guitarist claimed, “I owe a lot to Jimmy Page, of course – the master of the riff, and the master of getting lost deliberately in time signatures.”
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