The one guitarist who shaped Brian May’s entire career: “He’s in my life always”
There aren’t many guitarists as deeply overlooked as Brian May. His unique guitar sound has not often been considered among the greats of the instrument, but his riffs have been reverberating around the globe for decades. Few six-string maestros have delivered such rousing moments on their instruments. Simple and powerful in equal measure, May should be considered in a class of his own. Yet May himself suggests there is one other guitarist whom fans of ‘We Will Rock You’ have to thank.
With the guitarist pondering back to the time he created his solo album Back to the Light his interview with Far Out captured him in a reflective mood. The feature sees May reveal the stories behind his songs, discuss his influences, and open up about the battle scars he’s gained from a life in the music industry.
But there is perhaps one major influence that changed the guitarist’s entire life. May spoke passionately about his love for the late Irish guitarist, Rory Gallagher, who had a grand impact on him stylistically as a musician, but his love for Gallagher goes way beyond just his musicianship. “Let’s talk about Rory Gallagher,” May says.
It would appear that while Gallagher has always had his supporters in the music world, very few are aware of just how much he has shaped the pop sound of Queen too: “He’s in my life always. He also gave me my sound. We used to see Rory Gallagher in Taste at The Marquee every Thursday; I used to go a lot. And the sound that he made, and the contact that he made with the audience. Everything about Rory was just incredible. And I wanted to know how he did it. Do you want to know how I did it?”
“We were boys,” May continues as he discusses their brotherhood, “And there were times that they would close up The Marquee after the show and chuck everybody out. So, we hid in the toilets until everyone had gone – and then came out, and accosted Rory, who was packing up his own gear. He used to carry his own gear at the time; his own amp.”
It was at this point that May saw his opportunity to connect with a fledgeling guitar icon: “And I went up to him and said, ‘Mr Gallagher, how do you get your sound?’ He said, [imitates Irish accent] ‘Yeah, course you can.’ I said, ‘How do you get your sound, what is it that you do – how do you make it sing like that?’ He said it was very simple; ‘I have this AC30 amplifier, it’s very different to other amplifiers.”
A good amplifier is not often the thing music lovers dream of when imagining themselves delivering a killer solo under a spotlight, but it is an essential part of crafting a signature sound like May has. “It’s a vox amplifier, it makes a very sweet sound,’” Gallagher told the young May. “And he had his guitar – you’ll remember his guitar, it was battered and worn and fits him like a glove. His guitar was a part of him. And then he said, ‘There’s one more thing: there’s this little box that goes between the guitar and the amp.’ That was the Rangemaster treble booster, and that kicks up the signal and makes the amp sing. It makes it sustain.”
Those few tips would change May’s life and send him toward creating his unique tone: “So, the next day, I went down Wardour Street and bought myself two AC30s for £30 each, which was a lot of money for me in those days! And I found a little Rangemaster treble booster, plugged it up with the guitar that I made with my dad, and that was the sound! Really, that hasn’t changed in the forty, fifty years that I have been playing, and that became my voice!”
That crafty little trick that he learnt from Gallagher helped forge the familiar tones forever ingrained into our communal consciousness, but that’s not all he learned from the Irishman. May was equally motivated by how the guitarist carried himself as a human being and has tried to emulate a bit of Rory in his own life.
May adds: “I find myself talking more about Rory, especially these days. Again, he was an inspirational musician, but he was an inspiration as a person. He was a gentleman. He was kind, he was considerate. He always had time for people. I mean, I was a kid coming up and bother him while he was trying to pack up his gear after a long hard gig. He could have gone, ‘Ah, come on: I’m busy!’
“He just had an endless amount of time, and I got to know him after that. I count that as a great privilege: We did a couple of things together. And he was always the same: he never changed. I said to him once, ‘You treat me just the same as when you first met me.’ And he went, ‘You treat everybody the way you feel.’ Completely modest, decent, and a true gentleman. What a lovely guy!”
Brian May’s unfortunate run of being overlooked as one of the best guitarists does not mean that his value as a wondrous user of the instrument is any more diminished and his ability to understand is perhaps the most valuable lesson he learned from Gallagher.
