The “massive hero” Brian May deeply regrets not collaborating with
Queen’s Brian May doesn’t have many regrets about his career, and if given the chance, it’s hard to imagine that he wouldn’t do it almost precisely the same again if the opportunity presented itself.
Specifically, when it comes to the art of collaboration, May has always been open-minded and willing to say yes, even if he sometimes shouldn’t. The guitarist is always willing to pick up the phone and pursue an opportunity if it feels right, which has led to some wonderful musical results.
Notable collaborations on his CV include Queen’s classic ‘Under Pressure’ featuring David Bowie, and teaming up with Eddie Van Halen for the Star Fleet Project in 1983.
Furthermore, the guitarist has added his magical touch to beloved recordings by Hank Marvin, Meat Loaf, and Lady Gaga. Admittedly, for every ‘Under Pressure’, there’s also collaborations we’d rather forget from May’s canon, too, such as joining the backflipping pop star Benson Boone at Coachella in 2025, or bizarrely teaming up with N-Dubz rapper Dappy on his solo track, ‘Rockstar’, in 2011.
If it were up to May, he’d likely happily delete many collaborations from his past if it meant that he could have spent a day in the studio with his hero, John Lennon.
As a teenager of the 1960s, it’s no surprise that May looked up to Lennon as a godlike genius. While he attended early shows by The Who and breathed in the vibrant air that clogged up the streets of London during that era, The Beatles were the cream of the crop in his mind, especially Lennon.
He once told Classic Rock: “Lennon, from a frankly less-than-glamorous teenager with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, developed into the coolest guy on Earth. He was cool enough to write the greatest teen pop song ever, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’; to embrace psychedelia; to leave The Beatles when he felt it had all become a shallow game, and then to put his whole being into promoting peace in his solo work, producing the greatest, most daring and personally revealing solo albums ever made.”
Furthermore, in 2021, May shared in an exclusive interview with Far Out: “John Lennon is a massive hero of mine, and I was conscious in his solo work that John was grieving about losing The Beatles in various ways, and I was grieving about losing my band, and losing Freddie!”
Lennon’s music, with and without The Beatles, served as the soundtrack to May’s life during two distinctly different times. While the Fab Four were one of the major reasons that he entered the rock ‘n’ roll profession, all those years later, when his world collapsed following the passing of Freddie Mercury, Lennon’s work was again on hand to pick him up.
Therefore, due to his emotional connection with Lennon’s material, May views the late musician as the one who got away. May told The Guardian in 2023: “I very seldom turn down a collaboration. A regret is that I didn’t get the chance to work with John Lennon. The Beatles didn’t always agree, they were always pulling and pushing – a bit like us and Queen – and I think John would be such a stronger pusher and puller. You’d have to work really hard to keep up, to believe in your instincts. I could imagine us hitting it off.”
Similarly, Freddie Mercury felt the same way as May, once remarking, “The only person I wish I had met was John Lennon, ’cause he’s the one that I did idolise.”
Sadly, when Lennon was going through his phase of working with different artists in the 1970s, like Elton John, David Bowie, or Harry Nilsson, Queen were not in his orbit, which stopped May’s wishes from coming true. While they would have likely pushed each other to greatness, it wasn’t to be, and neither May nor Mercury ever crossed paths with their shared idol.
