Brian May’s health scare prompted career fears too. In the latest issue of Guitarist, the Queen band member opened up about his August 2024 stroke that left him unable to move one of his arms.
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“It went through my mind,” May told the outlet of whether or not he’d play guitar again, per NME. “When I suddenly couldn’t control this left arm, it was quite scary. I had no idea what was going on.”
Upon experiencing initial symptoms, May called his doctor who told him, “I think you’re having a minor stroke. Dial 999, get in the ambulance and I’ll see you there.”
While the brief fear that his guitar days were behind him certainly permeated, May soon knew he’d get back to music once again.
“Even at the worst time, although I couldn’t control where the arm was, I could control my fingers,” he explained. “So I thought, ‘I’m probably not really in danger.’”
As for how he’s feeling today, May said, “I’m all right now. I’m just taking it slow.”
Brian May Had a Stroke in August
May first revealed he’d suffered a stroke last September, about one week after the experience.
“The good news is I can play music again after the events of the last few days,” he said in an Instagram video. “It was in some doubt because that little health hiccup that I mentioned happened about a week ago, and what they called it was a minor stroke and all of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control over this arm, so it was a little scary.”
Shortly thereafter, May’s wife, Anita Dobson, provided a health update on him.
“He’s been told to rest. It’s hard to keep him resting, but he needs to, otherwise he won’t get well,” she told The Sun. “He’s doing great–he’s on the road, he’s doing really, really well. We’re very pleased.”
Dobson added that she’s “completely confident” that her husband will “make a full recovery.”
Brian May Is on the Road to Recovery
Indeed, in December, Dobson provided a happy update on May’s health.
“He’s much better now, he’s stabilized now, which is brilliant,” she told The Mirror. “I just hope we don’t have any more reoccurrences. He’s got the use of that arm, which was a bit of a challenge, back now.”
While Dobson revealed that May was “playing the piano quite a lot” at that point, she said that he “didn’t actually try” to play any instrument for quite a while after his stroke.
“He very slowly started to pick up an acoustic guitar and gradually just exercise the muscles. And it very quickly came back,” she said. “He’s just retraining the messages from your brain to that arm, that it’s actually okay to do what it used to do. It was scary. And also being a genius for someone like that. His brain’s overloaded, that’s what it is. He’s too clever for his own good.”
Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Mercury Studios
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