![\"Brian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Brian-May-Queen-1977-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Carl Lender<\/p>\n
Sun 2 August 2026 3:00, UK <\/p>\n
Brian May<\/a> knows guitar music inside and out\u2026 quite literally.<\/p>\n When he was just 15 in the halcyon days of 1963, he began constructing his own guitar, The Red Special, alongside his father. Beyond being the most wholesome origin story of any of the rock gods, this gave the fuzzy-haired friend of the badgers a robust knowledge of the intricacies of guitars and the nuances of their sound.<\/p>\n This understanding has always brought a subtlety to the Queen strummer that others struggle with. \u201cI can listen to any player and pantomime their sound,\u201d Steve Vai told Rolling Stone, \u201cBut I can\u2019t do Brian May. He\u2019s just walking on higher ground<\/a>.\u201d Well, maybe beyond the \u2018Bohemian Rhapsody\u2019 man\u2019s virtuosity, that is actually tied to a shed in Middlesex where the Red Special was born.<\/p>\n From tinkering with timbre to mastering tone, May was well acquainted. Yet, while the astrophysicist figured he knew all about the capabilities of the guitar as he got out into the world and formed his first juvenile, Smile, he was soon reminded that he actually knew the square root of jack shit when \u2018Stone Free\u2019 almost blew the ample hair off his brainy head in 1966.<\/p>\n Brimming with more imagination than Dr Suess\u2019 bibliography, more skill than Lionel Messi\u2019s highlights compilation (not quite), and more acid reflux than a Gaviscon advert, Jimi Hendrix\u2019s stunning B-side to \u2018Hey Jude\u2019 barely sounded human. The groovy Seattleite stunned the world with his debut single. Or rather, he stunned the UK, shooting to sixth in Blighty but failing to chart entirely in his native US.<\/p>\n The enamoured rockers on this side of the pond spread the word with whispers. And the hushed tones coming from May\u2019s mouth were touting a conspiracy theory: \u2018Stone Free\u2019 wasn\u2019t real. It couldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d heard the solo on \u2018Stone Free\u2019 and refused to believe that someone could actually play this,\u201d May recalled, rocked and humbled by Hendrix\u2019s uncanny wizardry. \u201cIt had to be some kind of studio trickery, the way he talks to the guitar and the guitar talks back to him,\u201d May continued, failing to even mention the sheer imagination behind it, too. <\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI was already playing in a band called Smile, and I thought I was a reasonably good guitarist, so I knew it wasn\u2019t possible,\u201d May explains. \u201cSo I went to the Saville [a music venue in London], determined to be a disbeliever, but I was swept off my feet.\u201d Hendrix had replicated what had once seemed impossible live before May\u2019s very eyes. The future Queen guitarist and a handful of his peers must have mumbled in unison, \u2018The bastard.\u2019<\/p>\n As Jeff Beck also testified, \u201cIt was a horrible time, really. Not because of him, but because of the fact that he swept us all aside and put us in a bin<\/a>.\u201d Heralded by \u2018Stone Free\u2019, a new era of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll was evidently upon the world. While the opening riff is stripped-back and almost Chuck Berry-adjacent, it liberates itself from there, exploding into a conversation between melody, noise and feedback in a way that abandoned genre, and used amps and pedals not just the guitar. <\/p>\n The Red Special might have given May a tone and an acute understanding, but Hendrix was like Tesla to his direct current sensibilities. Perfectly capturing the times and their footloose ways, \u2018Stone Free\u2019 seemed to inform the blue devotees looking on that those days were gone, and the \u201860s had moved on.<\/p>\n May was awed and well aware of the revolution unfurling before his eyes. \u201cI thought, \u2018This guy is the most astounding thing I\u2019ve ever seen.\u2019 And he did the \u2018Stone Free\u2019 solo live, absolutely perfectly. It was back to the drawing board for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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