Hear John Deacon’s iconic isolated bass for Queen’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’
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Credit: Kentaro Kizawa
What happened to John Deacon of Queen?
Whilst George Harrison of The Beatles is hailed as the definitive ‘Quite One’, people always forget that there was a quieter one: John Deacon of Queen. Deacon was the band’s secret weapon, making their dynamic songs truly pop with his trademark runs down the fretboard whilst also being one of the finest songwriters of his generation. alongside his artistic endeavours, Deacon was also a master with numbers and looked after the group’s finances, despite retiring from the music industry in 1997.
Notably, Deacon composed some of the band’s most successful hits, such as ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, and ‘I Want to Break Free’. In addition, he has co-songwriting credits for a host of their other most cherished cuts, such as ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘One Vision’.
Reflecting the kind of perceptive attitude that he holds, Deacon considered the songwriting aspect of being in Queen equally as vital as that of being the bass player, saying: “If I’d just been a bass player all my life with the band, I wouldn’t be as satisfied … I only consider that as part of what I do”.
Added to his brilliance was the homemade Deacy Amp that Deacon made, which allowed the band’s guitar hero Brian May to create a range of grandiose guitar orchestras throughout their career, as well as his signature sound. If it wasn’t clear already, Deacon is not solely a bassist and even contributed guitar, keyboards, and piano to Queen songs.
However, Deacon would start to step away from the limelight after the tragic death of Queen’s iconic frontman Freddie Mercury in 1991 and 1992’s tribute concert at London’s Wembley Stadium. Understandably destroyed by the death of his old friend, since then, Deacon only played a handful of times with the surviving members of Queen – May and drummer Roger Taylor – before stepping away from the industry for good after recording their final single ‘No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)’ in 1997.
Five years after Mercury’s death, Deacon told Bassist in 1996: “As far as we are concerned, this is it. There is no point carrying on. It is impossible to replace Freddie”. He was so done with being in the public eye that even when Queen were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, Deacon was nowhere to be seen.
Although May and Taylor may wish that Deacon was still around in the musical sense, he is still involved in the business side of Queen, meaning that whilst he’s not there physically, his calming, cerebral presence still has a deciding say in proceedings. It is safe to say they wouldn’t have it any other way. However, this hasn’t stopped May and Taylor from missing him. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2014, they explained that the contact they have with Deacon is minimal, bar that which is to do with economics. Taylor clarified that “[Deacon]’s completely retired from any kind of social contact” and even went as far as to describe him as “a little fragile”.
Despite this, the ever-optimistic May caveated this point, saying that “he still keeps an eye on the finances, though. John Deacon is still John Deacon. We don’t undertake anything financial without talking to him”.
For any fans who still believe that Deacon will one day rejoin Queen, earlier this year, May revealed that despite them asking him repeatedly to rejoin them, he had turned them down, and it looks as if it will stay this way.
May said that it would be extremely hard for Deacon to return to Queen as “things have changed a lot, and Roger and I have adapted a certain amount. We’re still very old school but we’re aware of different ways of behaving these days and different ways in which our art is channelled. . . I don’t think that is going to happen sadly. I’d love to say yes but I don’t think it would. It’s possible that we could meet in some low-stress situation, I think, but in public, probably not”.
So, to fans of Queen. John Deacon is alive and well; he’s just enjoying his life away from the limelight and all the stresses that the music industry brings. His estimated net worth is around £130 million; who could blame him?
