Queen Guitarist Nearly Run Over By Drum Kit

07/10/09 4:02pm

by Jason MacNeil (CHARTattack)

Queen guitarist Brian May got a little more than he bargained for earlier this month as he and drummer Roger Taylor performed in Birmingham, England.

According to May's website, he and Taylor were concluding a performance of stage musical We Will Rock You in the British city on July 2 when Taylor's drum kit — on a moving platform — ran into May. It hit him in the back and made the guitarist fall into the drum kit.

"It was all over in a flash, but, as with all things like this, the moment seemed like a few minutes...So much adrenaline was flowing in those frenetic seconds that I really didn't know at the time whether I was hurt or not..." May wrote. "I just recovered and got on with the Bo Rap ("Bohemian Rhapsody") riffs. But later I saw what the accident had done to my back, and got a bit of a shock...and overnight, the whole thing seized up."

The accident apparently happened because the band used a different timing set-up that evening. They'd used another set-up during a rehearsal earlier in the afternoon.

"If I'd REALLY had my wits about me I would have realised that the accident was waiting to happen, and made avoidance moves," May added in a post on Monday.

"But there was very little room at the front of that stage, and a lot of people milling about! Plus, with the lights in your eyes, noise everywhere, a deafening audience (Hoorah!), and the imminent thought that roughly the right kind of notes need to be played, even when being a Returning Rock Here(!)...I'm afraid it was a little more than my brain could stay on top of!"