Brian May Biography

Fast Facts

• Founded the Mercury Phoenix Trust, a charity for AIDS relief, with the other band members after Freddie Mercury's death in 1991
• Was awarded a Commander of the British Empire for services to the music industry and for his charity work in 2005
• Graduated from London Imperial College with a Science degree, focusing on Astrophysics, and later went pack to earn his Ph․D․ in the subject in 2008
• Built his first guitar with the help of his father as a teenager, called "The Red Special," out of firewood and used a six-pence coin as a pick
• While in college he formed the band Smile, which would later go on the road as Queen in 1971, with Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor
• Quote: "(On "We Will Rock You"): "I was thinking, 'What can you give an audience that they could do while they're standing there? They can stamp and they can clap and they can sing'․․․To me, it was a united thing․ It was an expression of strength․""
• Quote: "(On Freddie Mercury's sexuality): "The truth of the matter is nobody should care․ Why should anyone care what sexual persuasion people have? It's about the music, and Freddie would have been the first to say that․""
• Created his own line of guitars based on his famously handmade "Red Special․"
• Best known as the lead guitarist of the glam rock band Queen
• Wrote several of Queen's hit songs, including "We Will Rock You," "I Want It All," and "Fat Bottomed Girls․"
• Was responsible for creating the sounds of stomping and clapping in the song "We Will Rock You," using his knowledge of physics to manipulate sound waves in the recording studio