Brian May has revealed that Queen won’t tour again.
The 79-year-old guitarist decided 18 months ago that he “didn’t want to tour again” because he’s not willing to sacrifice his freedom anymore.
“A close family friend died when we were in the States, so I said to my tour manager, ‘I’ll just nip home for a few days and come back.’ She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘You know you can’t do that,'” he recalled in a recent interview with The Times. “I love to play, I love to travel, but the trade-off is sacrificing your freedom. I have a wife (actress Anita Dobson), grandchildren and a lot of astrophysics I want to do, so I’m thinking maybe 50 years is enough.”
Since 2005, May and his bandmate Roger Taylor have toured with singers Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert filling in for Queen’s late frontman Freddie Mercury. Queen and Lambert, who have worked together since 2011, concluded their last tour in February 2024.
Later that year, the musician suffered a “minor stroke” and was temporarily unable to use his left arm. He has since made a full recovery.
While they will no longer embark on global tours, May and Taylor are open to Queen performing live in another capacity.
“We do want to do something fairly revolutionary. Not as ABBA did, but along those lines,” Taylor said, referring to ABBA’s virtual Voyage show in London.
“Last year I went to the Sphere (in Las Vegas), my juices started flowing and I sketched out a whole Queen show,” May added. “I think an immersive experience is still on the cards and it could conquer time and space, but currently you can’t make it without AI and I have serious misgivings about that.”
