He has been in the music industry for nearly 60 years, but even Queen legend Brian May is worried about dealing with cancel culture.
According to UCR, the Queen icon spoke to UK’s ITV network about cancel culture and how it would have been different for his band to find success in the modern world. “I’m sure we would be forced to have people of different colors and different sexes and a transperson. But life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”
The Queen bandmate also admitted that while his generation has made a lot of mistakes, not everyone in the generation was completely wrong or right. “A lot of people from our generation who are being called out have actually done a lot of good in their lives.”
May does go on to admit he is worried about cancel culture, but he thinks some of it is good. “It also brings bad things and injustices,” the Queen legend further explains. “We think in different ways but they weren’t necessarily worse ways.”
He used his former bandmate and Queen’s late lead singer, Freddie Mercury as an example. “[He] came from Zanzibar. He wasn’t British. He wasn’t white as such. Nobody cared. Nobody ever, ever discussed it. He was a musician, he was our friend. He was our brother. We didn’t have to stop and think, ‘Oh, no, should we work with him? Is he the right color? Is he the right sexual proclivity?’ None of that happened.”
The Queen bandmate’s cancel culture comments come just after UK BRIT Awards changed their male and female categories to non-gender artists of the year.
The Band ‘Queen’ Mourns the Loss of Friend & Photograph Mick Rock
Last week, Queen bandmate Brian May took to his Instagram to share a touching tribute to the band’s friend and photographer, Mick Rock. He stated in the post, “Sad and shock to Hera of the passing of our friend, photographer Mick Rock.”
The Queen legend shared that Rock actually captured the iconic image of the band for the QUEEN II cover in 1974, which May described as a time when the group was not full of “very big” stars. “The Marlene-Dietrich style lighting applied to the four of us (only ONE light source above for the whole group) gave us an enduring image. Inspired part of the ‘look’ of our Bohemian Rhapsody video a couple of years later. And has been widely imitated by others over the years since then.”
May went on to add that Rock did much more memorable work for the late singer David Bowie. “[He] proceed images both in the studio and in the live situation. His oeuvre will definitely shine on. RIP Mr. Rock. Bri”