Brian May has some thoughts about the world’s current cultural climate. During an interview with The Mirror, the Queen guitarist said the band probably wouldn’t fare well if it was just starting out during a time when everyone has “to be so calculating about everything.”
“Freddie [Mercury] came from Zanzibar, he wasn’t British, he wasn’t white as such – nobody cares, nobody ever, ever discussed it,” May said. “He was a musician, he was our friend, he was our brother. We didn’t have to stop and think: ‘Ooh, now, should we work with him? Is he the right color? Is he the right sexual proclivity?’ None of that happened, and now I find it frightening that you have to be so calculating about everything.”
He then took that thought one step further, adding: “We would be forced to have people of different colors and different sexes and we would have to have a trans [person]. You know life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”
The comments stemmed from the BRIT Awards’ decision to eliminate gendered categories (Male Solo Artist of the Year, Female Solo Artist of the Year, International Male Solo Artist of the Year and International Female Solo Artist of the Year) and reconstruct them into two gender-neutral categories (Artist of the Year and International Artist of the Year).
“It’s a decision that has been made without enough thought. A lot of things work quite well and can be left alone,” he said. “I get so sick of people trying to change things without thinking of the long-term consequences. Some of these things are an improvement, some of them are not.”
As far as cancel culture goes, May called it an “atmosphere of fear everywhere because people are afraid to say how they really think.”
“I think so many people are feeling, ‘Hang on, this isn’t quite right.’ But they don’t dare say anything,” he continued. “Eventually, there will be some kind of explosion.”
Brian May’s interview caught the eyes of right-wing tabloids, which is a bit of a contrast from his comments on anti-vaxxers. Over the summer he called them all, including his “hero” Eric Clapton, “fruitcakes.”
