“Beyond belief”: Brian May names the greatest modern guitarist
Whenever you see a list of the Greatest Guitarists of All Time, Brian May invariably always features somewhere towards the top. One of the defining aspects of the brash Queen sound, May’s guitar playing and tone is as unique and singular as Freddie Mercury’s singing.
With a clean, fresh sound emanating from his homemade ‘Red Special’ guitar, May blended together a melting pot of influences from the blues, soul and rock ‘n’ roll with elements of jazz and even classical into his own glam-rock guitar playing. Songs like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Killer Queen’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ show off his range of influences, trademark tone and above all, they wouldn’t be nearly as good without his playing on them.
Inspired by the playing of legends like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and George Harrison, Brian May has gone on to inspire countless guitarists himself, but he is also awed and inspired by some of the new wave of players that came up after him, too.
In a 2024 interview with Guitar World Magazine, May singled out Nuno Bettencourt as an especially exciting player from the generations of guitarists who came after him. “Nuno, to me, is just stratospheric in the way he plays”, May said. “These are the people I adore, really. And if I were that kind of person, I would be deeply jealous because I can’t do that shit”.
And whilst May may not think he can play like Bettencourt, he did at least inspire the sound to some degree. In a 2023 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Bettencourt singled out a handful of guitarists who inform the way he plays, including Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Brian May.
May is aware of his influence but also acknowledges that Bettencourt’s playing is much more in line with the two other guitarists who he cited on the Howard Stern Show – Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhodes – than his own, telling Guitar World “he’s beyond belief. I know he’s influenced by me – he’s kind enough to say so – but he’s very influenced by Eddie Van Halen, as should be the case. He always pays wonderful tributes to Ed, and he has that magic in his fingers that Ed had, I think.”
Bettencourt’s style is very much a throwback to the excess of the 80s hair-metal playing style that Van Halen epitomised; where the ethos of more-is-more won out against any desire for subtlety, delicacy or restraint. An incredibly dexterous player, with a lightning ability to get around the fretboard, Nuno Bettencourt probably plays more notes in each of his solos than Brian May has played in his whole career.
And whilst Bettencourt is not a new kid on the block – he joined Extreme in 1985 and was voted the Best New Talent by readers of Guitar World in 1991 – he recently won a lot of new admirers and praise for his solo in the 2023 Extreme song ‘Rise’. Brian May has been a long-term fan, however, and has spoken about Bettencourt in numerous interviews over the years.
Always effusive in his praise, May called his guitar playing on the Rise song ‘Get the Funk Out’ “a landmark in rock history” in a 2017 interview, while in another conversation with Guitar World in 2023, May said that “I listen to Nuno Bettencourt and I just smile”, adding that “I just love the guy and I love what he does”.
