After 50-plus years of shattering boundaries, Queen guitarist Brian May has one more frontier he’d like to conquer: a residency at the Las Vegas Sphere.
“ I’m very keen on the Sphere,” May told Rolling Stone. “It’s got my mind working. I sat there watching the Eagles, thinking, ‘We should do this. The stuff that we could bring to this would be stupendous.’ So, yeah, I would like to do it. We’re having conversations.”
Brian May: ‘I Still Want to Innovate’
The idea of a residency particularly appeals to May, who’s hungry to keep performing but exhausted by the rigors and monotony of touring.
“ I’ve had 50 years of touring and there’s a part of me that thinks it’s enough,” he said. “I don’t like the idea that you wake up in your hotel room and you’re trapped. I had a few experiences recently where stuff happened at home with my family and I could not go home. It got under my skin and I just thought, ‘I’m not sure if I want this anymore.’ I feel like I’ve given up my freedom too many times. So my feeling at the moment is I don’t want to tour as such. I still want to play shows. I still want to innovate.”
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May does not take the ability to play shows or innovate for granted after having a minor stroke last year that left him briefly unable to move his left arm.
“All of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control over this arm,” he revealed last September. “So it was a little scary, I have to say.”
In classically understated British fashion, the guitarist added: “I didn’t want anything surrounding it. I really don’t want sympathy – please don’t do that, because it’ll clutter up my inbox, and I hate that.”
Queen Rejects Farewell Tour Idea: ‘It Never Is, Is It?’
May and Queen drummer Roger Taylor have been touring with singer Adam Lambert since 2011, and Taylor sees no signs of the machine slowing down.
“ I don’t think we’re done,” he told Rolling Stone. “And I don’t think we’re gonna say, you know, final farewell tour or whatever. ‘Cause it never is, is it?”
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Does that mean new Queen music with Lambert could emerge? It’s “always in the mind,” according to May. “Not many people know, but Adam and we have been in the studio trying things. Nothing really materialized so far. Some things are meant to be and some things are not.”
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Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli
