{"id":206015,"date":"2025-09-06T21:57:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T21:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206015\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T21:57:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T21:57:11","slug":"im-often-thinking-of-freddie-brian-may-on-the-band-he-thinks-is-carrying-on-queens-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/206015\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m Often Thinking of Freddie\u201d: Brian May on the Band He Thinks Is Carrying on Queen\u2019s Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Countless bands have tried to follow in the footsteps of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon by continuing Queen\u2019s legacy<\/a> of theatrical, powerful, and emotional rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Nearly just as many have come up short with their efforts.<\/p>\n

Decades later, that may no longer be the case.<\/p>\n

From a Fan to a Collaborator in a Matter of Years<\/strong><\/p>\n

Few singers can rival the versatility, power, range, and emotiveness of the late Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury, which is why we still regard him as one of the greatest rock \u2018n\u2019 roll singers of all time<\/a>. He was a once-in-a-generation talent, but guitarist Brian May might have found a band that is truly following in Queen\u2019s footsteps decades later: The Struts. As if a stamp of approval from Brian May wasn\u2019t a big enough feather to put in the English glam-rock band\u2019s cap, the iconic guitarist agreed to play on a re-recorded version of his favorite Struts song over a decade after the band first released it in 2013.<\/p>\n

Two years after The Struts released \u201cCould Have Been Me\u201d, the rousing song about living life to the fullest started picking up steam in the States, reaching the top ten of the U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Queen guitarist Brian May didn\u2019t discover the song until years later, but he\u2019d likely argue that it\u2019s better to discover it late than never discover the song at all. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the best rock songs ever,\u201d May told Classic Rock<\/a> in 2025. \u201cIt was actually bigger in America than it was in Britain; it passed people by over here, and it shouldn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

May gladly accepted The Struts\u2019 offer to re-record \u201cCould Have Been Me\u201d with him playing guitar, which they released in early September 2025. For May, the re-recording wasn\u2019t just a chance to dive into a song he admitted he wished he had heard when he was a kid. It was also a rare opportunity to work with someone who reminded him of his former colleague and long-time friend, Freddie Mercury.<\/p>\n

Brian May Thinks This Band Is Carrying on Queen\u2019s Legacy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking to Classic Rock around the time of The Struts\u2019 re-release of \u201cCould Have Been Me\u201d, Queen guitarist Brian May said that working with The Struts\u2019<\/a> lead singer, Luke Spiller, was a lot like working with his former bandmate. \u201cWorking with Luke, I\u2019m often thinking of Freddie [Mercury]. There are a lot of similarities. They both have this unstoppable belief. They have incredible voices, they\u2019re great songwriters, but they have that extra ingredient. \u201cI\u2019m going to do this. I\u2019m going to let the world come to me.\u2019 That\u2019s what Freddie had, and that\u2019s what I see in Luke.\u201d<\/p>\n

But of course, May doesn\u2019t consider \u201cCould Have Been Me\u201d to be one of the best rock songs ever simply because of Spiller\u2019s vocal talent (although that\u2019s certainly a driving factor). The guitarist connected deeply to the song\u2019s message, calling it \u201cvery inspirational.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t want to look back and think I didn\u2019t live my life and take all the opportunities that were in front of me,\u201d May summarized. \u201cI love that sentiment. You can say it in words. But you really feel it in the song. Could it be me? It says everything that a kid needs to know when they\u2019re growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo by Miikka Skaffari\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Countless bands have tried to follow in the footsteps of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":206016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[34695,171,975,34696,4185,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-206015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-brian-may","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-queen","12":"tag-rock-music","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115159593538969989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}