It’s been just over a year since Brian May’s life took a turn for the worse.
In September 2024, the Queen guitarist revealed that he had suffered a “minor stroke” that left him temporarily unable to use his left arm.
He’s now offered a new health update in an interview with Alan Titchmash on ITV’s Love Your Weekend.
"I’ve been lucky, I get these things, but I seem to be able to get out of them,” May says. “They give you a wake-up call.”
The 77-year-old guitar virtuoso was likely referring to several other ailments he’s suffered in the recent past. He had a heart attack in May 2020 and subsequently nearly died when his heart medication caused his stomach to hemorrhage.
"That's the point where I nearly lost my life,” he told Good Morning Britain in 2020, “not the heart attack, strangely enough.”
In his new interview, May revealed that he's now giving more attention to his health by keeping active.
“I keep moving,” he explains. “I do my biking a lot of times a week. I do a hundred lengths in the pool once a week.
“To me, that’s what’s keeping me going. That's what's keeping me alive.”
He adds that his doctors have given him the thumbs up, telling him he's "doing the right things.”
“So, for now, I'm still here,” he says.
May first told the public about his stroke in an Instagram video in September 2024.
“They called it a minor stroke, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control of this arm,” he explained. “It was a little scary, I have to say.”
Since then, May has returned to performing, appearing twice with Benson Boone at Coachella and in London.
In that time, he has also become one of the loudest voices in the campaign against teaching AI with artists’ music. The guitarist raised concerns about the U.K. government adopting changes to copyright laws that would make it easier for AI developers to mine online songs.
“My fear is that it’s already too late," May said. "This theft has already been performed and is unstoppable, like so many incursions that the monstrously arrogant billionaire owners of Al and social media are making into our lives. The future is already forever changed."
May also recently revealed the “fireball” of an electric guitar player who blew his mind before Jimi Hendrix, saying, “He was incredible, nobody could play like that in those days.”
