The Brian May song that Eric Clapton couldn’t stand: “It was so horrible”
Every guitarist will want to find their own voice on their instrument. Even though it’s easy trying to pull different licks from their heroes, the greatest compliment any guitarist can get is being recognised within a few seconds of hearing their playing.
While Brian May created a massive sonic landscape whenever he made his rock and roll symphonies with Queen, one of his idols was less than impressed with one of his pet projects.
Throughout his time with the rock monarchs, May had already made his voice heard from the first records. While most of the praise was bestowed on Freddie Mercury from the beginning, May’s ingenuity on the guitar made people question what he was doing half the time, leading to the band making different disclaimers saying that they didn’t use synthesisers on the record.
Once the band started to spread their wings following A Night at the Opera, they began to toy with their traditional approach to rock and roll. While May’s guitar still had a prominent role on tracks like ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’, the beginning of the 1980s saw the band embracing the sounds of electronic instruments, including the disco-tinged hit ‘Another One Bites the Dust’.
As the band tried to go even more commercial on the album Hot Space, there was also a creative division between the group, leading to every band member starting a solo project. After Mercury saw modest success off the momentum of his solo debut, Mr Bad Guy, May had plans for another project on the EP Star Fleet Project.
Only containing a handful of original tunes, this was May’s excuse to work with some of his favourite musicians in the business, delivering a metal-centric take on space rock. Although the album would feature artists like Eddie Van Halen wailing over the top of menacing rock and roll riffs, May wouldn’t get any high praise from his idol, Eric Clapton.
By the 1980s, Clapton had already started trading his original caustic sound for something more mellow. In the wake of his heavy years with Cream and supergroups like Blind Faith and Derek and Dominoes, ‘Slowhand’ had begun making songs with a pop tinge to them like ‘Wonderful Tonight’, not all of which sat well with what May had in mind.
Even though the title track was dedicated to Clapton’s playing style, he was appalled by what he heard, telling Musician, “It was so horrible. And they dedicated it to me. They sent me a copy, and I put it on, expecting something, and, you know, I was almost insulted that they should send this to me”.
Clapton’s reaction speaks to a wider divide in musical philosophy between the two players. Where May was leaning into excess and experimentation, building dense layers of guitar work, Clapton had spent years moving in the opposite direction, favouring restraint and clarity. What one guitarist heard as expressive and ambitious, the other perceived as overindulgent.
That contrast is part of what makes the collaboration so fascinating in hindsight. It captures a moment where different generations and approaches to the instrument collided, each rooted in their own idea of what great guitar playing should be. Even if it did not win Clapton over, it remains a snapshot of May pushing his sound to its limits, regardless of expectation or approval.
While it may not have been to his liking, hearing May and Van Halen trade licks together is one of the most overlooked collaborations in rock and roll. Considering how Clapton used to work with Duane Allman on songs like ‘Layla’, this sounds like that mentality for a new generation, making the most out of playing as many notes as possible, as each of them does their best trying to match what the other has already played.
Despite the harsh words, May still considered Clapton one of his idols, saying, “He’s entitled [to hate it]. He can do what he wants. I mean, Eric could do anything, and he’ll still be our hero. That’s the way it is. There’s probably lots of things I disagree with Eric about, but that doesn’t change anything”.
