(Credits: Far Out / Raph_PH)
Sun 18 January 2026 19:00, UK
Queen axeman Brian May surely sits in the top ten of UK guitarists?
There’s stiff competition, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and David Gilmour all likely to muscle their way to the front of any such list, but May’s melodic playing style and flair for grand harmonic wield proved an essential binding agent to Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s commanding vocals and opulent songcraft. Indeed, there’s an air of regality to May’s thunderous solos, a sensibility well planted in the rock and pop tradition while also reaching for classical’s lofty heights.
Such bluster will wind up the detractors, but it’s what hardcore Queen fans love about May. His unique guitar style and arrangements have been shaped over the years by the rollcall of 1950s and ‘60s guitar greats, Hank Marvin, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, and Jeff Beck have all been namechecked by the Queen guitarist at points, but May was particularly effusive with praise for one guitarist that often doesn’t receive quite the same lauded plaudits as the aforementioned rock titans.
“I love what Steve Cropper does,” May told Classic Rock History in 2025. “Steve has stayed so close to his roots; that’s the amazing thing. He’s still that guy playing solid… I don’t even know how to express it; there’s incredible integrity about the era that Steve helped to create.”
To the unfamiliar, you’ll have heard Cropper’s guitar licks on the endlessly played ‘Green Onions’ instrumental with Booker T & the MG’s, and as one of the internal members of the Stax in-house band, Cropper sat in on sessions across a plethora of soul classics from the famed Memphis label, as well as sitting in the producer’s chair and even penning original songs.
Cropper’s Telecaster mastery would see him play with untold artists, Big Star, Frank Black, Chicago, Peter Frampton, Otis Redding, and even Leo Sayer, among countless big names eagerly recruiting Cropper’s services. His Memphis sound proved so far-reaching that even The Beatles sought to work with him when their touring dates passed through Tennessee, manager Brian Epstein cancelling at the last minute.
And so, May can count himself as another entry on Cropper’s glittering CV, joining forces with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons for 2024’s Friendlytown from the Steve Cropper & the Midnight Hour project, laying down a guitar line for the album’s ‘Too Much Stress’. Passing away only the very next year, May’s partnering with the Stax legend wouldn’t be forgotten, later emphasising just what an impact Cropper left on the young Queen guitarist.
“Steve’s playing has expression; it’s like a violin,” May stated. “It could talk like a human voice; that’s what got me. That’s what reached out to me. I just thought, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to make the guitar speak like he does in ‘Green Onions.’”
He added, “It still gives me shivers up the spine to think about hearing that for the first time. I just thought, ‘How’s he doing that? How does the guitar do that?’ So, I was bitten. That’s the whole… that’s where it starts. For me, the guitar became a voice.”
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