The musician Brian May considers to be among “guitar playing’s greatest champions”
Certain names seem to find their way into every list of guitar greats. Jimi Hendrix, for example, has been widely praised for his revolutionary use of feedback and pedals, techniques that still endure in guitar music today. Or David Gilmour, who took up the instrument for prog-rockers Pink Floyd, bringing in blues influences and stunning solos. And, usually, somewhere in between them, Brian May will make an appearance.
As part of Queen, the artist and astrophysicist penned and performed some of the most iconic guitar parts in rock history. He composed the dramatic solo for the sprawling ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the slightly simpler and softer ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, and the suitably hard rock of ‘Brighton Rock’. Along the way, he won over audiences in their masses and made a name for himself as a guitar great.
May’s name is almost always mentioned alongside the likes of Hendrix and Gilmour in discussions about revolutionary players, and for good reason. The Queen guitarist seems more than qualified, then, to throw out his own suggestions for “guitar playing’s greatest champions”. His pick? Blues rocker Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Vaughan created entrancing blues rock riffs under his own name and as part of Double Trouble, earning the admiration of everyone from Muddy Waters to David Bowie. His talent for the instrument seemed almost effortless and he played huge shows up until his death in 1990. Like May, his name has since appeared in many lists of the best guitar players in music history.
The Queen guitarist once described Vaughan as an “elemental monster” in a post on Instagram. He shared a video of a shimmery waistcoated Vaughan shredding without even looking at his instrument, holding the guitar behind his back while engaging with the audience. Somehow, his playing is so good that it offsets the decided uncoolness of wearing a musical note guitar strap.
“This is the kind of guitar playing that melts me,” May enthused of Vaughan’s talents, “Stevie Ray Vaughan, lost in a world of his own, here allows his fingers to be a channel for the burning passions inside him.” The Queen guitarist compared Vaughan to fellow guitar legend Hendrix in the way he makes his guitar “sing, speak to us of wonders beyond worlds.”
To May’s disappointment, he never got the chance to meet Vaughan and share his admiration first-hand. The guitarist passed away in 1990, but friends of Vaughan’s have since passed on his mutual admiration for May, a compliment that stuck with the Queen rocker. “One of the favourite moments in my life,” he explained, “was when one of his friends told me, after he was gone, that he liked my playing.”
It makes sense that Vaughan admired May’s playing, too. Though they existed in completely different genres — May in the glamorous rock realm of Queen and Vaughan amidst the blues revival — they shared a real passion and talent for their instrument. May even pulled elements of blues into his approach to hard rock, the influence of Vaughan bleeding into his own sound.
May’s assertion that Vaughan is one of “guitar playing’s greatest champions” is a statement that few would disagree with. It’s also one that could just as easily be applied to his own contributions to the instrument. Both of their names permeate those lists of the guitar greats, and it’s easy to see why.
