Pheaturing Brian May

 

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Saturday, how are you? We are down to the Phinal Phour entries. Don't cry, you'll be fine. The latest former Trump White House staffer to cash in on their connections after enabling the Trumps for years is Melania's former chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham. Politico got an advanced copy of Grisham's upcoming memoir, I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House, and Grisham wrote about Melania's reaction (well, not reaction) to the Capitol insurrection: "At 1:25 p.m. on Jan. 6, soon after rioters had broken through barricades outside of the Capitol, MELANIA TRUMP received a text message from her then-chief of staff, STEPHANIE GRISHAM. 'Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?' Grisham asked the first lady. A minute later, Melania replied with a one-word answer: 'No.' At that moment, she was at the White House preparing for a photo shoot of a rug she had selected..." Yeah, that tracks. Grisham also writes that Melania, like her husband, insists that the election was stolen, and refused to reach to Jill Biden. Melania responded to Politico with an incredibly salty statement that goes as far as invoking a domestic abuse allegation: "A statement provided by the office of Melania Trump said: 'The intent behind this book is obvious. It is an attempt to redeem herself after a poor performance as press secretary, failed personal relationships, and unprofessional behavior in the White House. Through mistruth and betrayal, she seeks to gain relevance and money at the expense of Mrs. Trump.' Her mention of “failed personal relationships” appears likely to be a reference to Grisham’s past relationship with former Trump aide MAX MILLER. Citing three people familiar with the incident, POLITICO Magazine reported in July that the relationship “ended when he pushed her against a wall and slapped her in the face in his Washington apartment after she accused him of cheating on her.” He denied the allegation. It's an incredibly low blow for Melania to bring up domestic abuse, but that's why the lady is a Trump. Be Best.

Last week, the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the reviews are not so dear. Releasing on September 24th, the film is being hailed as "a total misfire" and "one of the worst movie-musicals ever made." Dear Evan Hansen is about a clinically anxious high school student who fakes a friendship with a classmate who died by suicide. Sounds fun, eh? Robert Daniels, in his review for RogerEbert.com, calls it "an emotionally manipulative, overlong dirge composed of cloying songs, lackluster vocal performances, and even worse writing." Critics noted that the moral dubiousness of the title character is rendered irredeemable because Ben Platt straight-up looks like a grown man enrolled in high school. Sorry, buddy. I don't think your Tony Award-winning role is going to turn into an Oscar-winning one.

Okay, I have to mention the Giants... When they bring out the air cast, you know it’s bad. Unfortunately, that was the case Thursday night for Nick Gates. The Giants captain was carted off with a gruesome leg injury during the first quarter of the Washington-New York game on a field that appears to be somewhat cursed in the department of compound leg breaks. Gates snapped his tibia and fibula in an injury that will sideline him for at least the remainder of the season, possibly into next year. In the final seconds of the fourth quarter with the Giants up 29-27, Washington kicker Dustin Hopkins lined up to kick a game-winning field goal. Hopkins missed the kick but the referees threw a flag on Giants’ Dexter Lawrence for being offsides. But after looking at a freeze frame clip of the play, it looks like Lawrence didn’t jump offsides, instead read the snap perfectly. Lawrence indirectly echoed this sentiment when speaking with reporters. “That’s on me. I have to be more disciplined in… a critical situation.” Lawrence it seems didn’t think he was offsides a day later. “My opinion really don’t matter,” he said. “We lost the game. The refs called what they called.” Tough to tell if it was an offsides or not, either way, the Giants fall to 0-2 after a 30-29 loss.

I think it's already safe to say that Canadian star Simu Liu is Hollywood's latest breakout star and the unprecedented success of Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings pretty much catapulted his career to heights previously unbeknownst to him. However, just as Simu's acting career is finally taking off, the actor is being dragged into several controversies that are bringing up comments he made from several years back. For starters, the actor was reportedly under fire in China after his 2017 interview recently went viral in the country. Appearing on CBC's "What's Your Story?" to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Canada, Simu recalled his early memories of living in communist China, describing it as a third-world country where people are allegedly dying of starvation. If that issue wasn't enough, the actor is once again in hot water after his alleged comments on his archived Reddit account have resurfaced online for the world to see. The said comments which include "racist" and "sexist" remarks from the MCU newcomer were posted under the username /u/nippedinthebud between 2013-2019 and have been deemed problematic by a lot of fans. Simu has yet to release an official statement regarding his latest controversy but intriguingly, the actor took to Twitter to look back on an old tweet of his where he talks about making questionable comments out of hate and anger. 

The timing of the issue is absolutely bad as Liu is just starting to make his mark in Hollywood as a bonafide A-list celebrity. But when you think about it, it's been an ongoing cycle for actors in Hollywood as of late to become haunted by their past "mistakes" and while I don't condone Simu's controversial comments, I think we can all agree that Cancel Culture is mainly responsible for exposing him.

Back in the day on the Phile I used to talk about what happened on "The Amazing Race" and "Big Brother" in a pheature called "Reality Blurred" I think. Anyway, I am still a big fan of those shows and as "Big Brother" is going on right now I thought I'd just talk about it. "Big Brother Season 23" contestant Azah Awasum may have just lost her chance at the $750,000 grand prize. The second double eviction for the summer aired this week, and it saw Azah winning her first Head of Household (HOH) competition. Prior to the eviction, Hannah Chaddha begged for her life in the game but Azah told her that she needs to stay true to what she promised Kyland Young. Apparently, Azah told Kyland that she would not put him up because Kyland didn’t put her up for eviction last week. Azah also told Hannah that she needs to put her up alongside Xavier Prather and all she needs to do is win the Power of Veto (POV). Unfortunately, Kyland was the one that won the POV and he decided to use it on his ride or die, Xavier. Azah put Big D Frazier up as her replacement nominee and Kyland and Xavier both voted to save him over Hannah. Since "Big Brother" is a number and loyalty game, Azah might have just lost her chance at bringing home the grand prize. Prior to Tiffany Mitchell’s eviction, she and Hannah spoke to Azah urging her to stay loyal to the last three women in the house. Tiffany told Azah that they need to stick together so that they would have the numbers to evict the final three men in the house. Unfortunately, Azah decided to stay loyal to the other housemates and not to Tiffany and Hannah. Azah has always been close to Big D and she has also been very vocal about her crush on Xavier. Since Kyland put Tiffany and Hannah up for eviction, Azah voted to send Tiffany packing. And when she had the opportunity to save the other female player in the house, she refused to do so. Now, Azah is the only woman in the game. And even though she and the other members of the cookout made history by being the first African-American alliance to make it to the top 6, it’s unlikely for her to become this season’s winner. As this week’s HOH, Azah isn’t qualified to compete in next week’s HOH game. What she doesn’t know is that Xavier and Kyland have a final two deal. So, if either one of them becomes HOH, they will put her and Big D up for eviction. Either way, Azah and Big D’s position in the game is quite similar. After all, Azah just had her first big win this week. Big D, on the other hand, has not won anything. So, taking them to the final two could either make or break Xavier and Kyland’s strategy. In "Big Brother" history, it has become common practice for the finalists to take a contestant that didn’t do much throughout the season to ensure that they would win the grand prize. So, if this is Xavier and Kyland’s strategy, they could take each other out and bring either Azah and Big D to the finale. However, Kyland also said that he wants his "Big Brother" experience to be unlike any other. So, he wants to compete with only the best on finale night. If he remains true to his word, this means that Kyland would take Xavier to the finale. And the first male African-American winner would be crowned in "Big Brother Season 23." The finale episode for "Big Brother Season 23" will air on September 29th on CBS. The members of the jury will also return to cast their vote on who they think is most deserving to bring home $750,000. America’s Favorite Houseguest will also bring home $25,000. 

Did you see the new billboards that are popping up all over Florida? I will show you...

Hahaha. There's a new Disney+ Star Wars that is coming out... I'll show you the first promo poster for it...

I think it'll be good. You know, children's books are not as creative as they used to be...

Haha. Only 25 cents. If I had a TARDIS I would go to Aspen, Colorado in 1973 and buy a cup of lemonade from this kid. I wonder what he's doing now. 

Today's guest used to be in Queen and I have to show you this... the poster from the one time Foghat opened for Queen.

On Valentine's Day. I wish I was at that show. A good rule of thumb is that if something involves secretly tinkering with somebody else's phone, it's not the cleanest move. A guy emailed the Phile about how he was frustrated with his wife checking her email while they were on vacation. Rather than talk to her about it, he picked up her phone while she wasn't looking, and changed the notification settings. He also took the opportunity to criticize her job as not worth caring about. 

"She is hourly, and not paid a high enough wage to warrant her needing to check emails after hours. I'm paid a high salary in a 24/7 production type job. I check my email once a day to make sure I didn't seriously screw the pooch on something before I left, but that's it. I do have a problem with her reading emails and starting to worry about work when she isn't paid to, every time she gets copied on a work email. I get that she doesn't want to walk in blind next week. But she'll have plenty of time to read missed emails on the plane ride home. Am I wrong to getting her phone and blocking her work email notifications behind her back?" You could like... you know... talk to your wife. I get that it comes from a good place, but this is not the right solution." The entitlement is stunning. Who gave you the authority? You decided to sabotage your wife's work and treat her like a child you need to manage, not an adult partner. You see your work as important but her work, her job, is just some cute hobby you just... messed with. For your convenience. So, yeah, you were wrong, my friend. If you have a problem and you'd like my advice on email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. Mind you, only three more entries after this one so there's a good chance I won't get to it... but you never know. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...

Top Phive Things Said At A Bar Last Night

5. I drank too much wine which wouldn't have been so bad but I was already drinking vodka. 

4. The olive in a dirty martini basically makes it a salad. 

3. Life rule: vodka mixes well with everything except decisions. 

2. Therapy: $125. Margarita on an empty stomach: $12. 

And the number one thing said at a bar last night was...

1. Time heals all... and so does tequila. Tequila and time heal all. Drinking tequila all the time heals all. 

If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, let's take a live look at Pot Jefferson, shall we?

This is so cool! It's the Summers Fames Market. Also today is...

I wish I was there. Now for some...

Phact 1. Mark Twain repaid his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, though he had no legal obligation to do so. “I am not a business man; and honor is a harder master than the law. It cannot compromise for less than a hundred cents on the dollar, and its debts never outlaw.” 

Phact 2. In the Marvel comics, Santa Claus is actually the world’s most powerful mutant ever registered by the X-Men. 

Phact 3. Leonardo DiCaprio bought an island in Belize 10 years ago and built the world’s first eco-restorative resort that restores the island’s over-fished waters, coastline, and forest. 

Phact 4. In 2000, three Colombian gunmen made the mistake of trying to kidnap the family of Bernardo Tobar, one of the top rated shooters in the country, while he was returning from the range. He shot two of them dead with his target pistol. 

Phact 5. The first meal consumed on the moon was bread and wine. Buzz Aldrin brought with him communion bread and wine, along with a small silver chalice, and held communion during a requested radio blackout shortly after landing. 

This is cool. Today's guest s an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, author, astrophysicist, and university administrator. He is the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. His debut solo album "Back to the Light" was reissued as part of the "Brian May Gold Series," packaged with a second disc of bonus tracks titled "Out of the Light." Please welcome to the Phile... Brian May!

Me: Hello, Brian, welcome to the Phile. My friend Jeff is gonna be jealous I'm interviewing you. How are you? 

Brian: Hello, Jason, and hello Jeff. 

Me: So, you released your solo album "Back to the Light" for its 30th anniversary. How has this experience been for you? 

Brian: It's great, it's been very energizing and very unexpected I've got to say. 

Me: Why is that? 

Brian: Because I am 30 years older than the boy that made that record. The boy that made that record was not in a good state. He was in a very depressed state because he was losing Freddie, he was losing his dad, he was losing his marriage, he was using the band that he put all his energies into. It was a bleak time where I felt a lot of blackness and got kind of paralysed mentally for quite a while. I was looking for a way out, looking for a new light and that's what this album is all about. So in a way I was hoping to connect with people who are in a black place and looking for a light. 

Me: So, what made you decide to re-release the album? 

Brian: The timing couldn't be better. The funny thing was I thought I would feel paternal towards that boy that I'm looking back on. But actually, as soon as I immersed myself in it, I felt that no, this is still me. I am still that boy. If I was going to make an album right now I would probably make this one. I still have the pain. I still have the yearning. I still have the feelings of unfulfillment. All that kind of stuff, and I suppose they're the stuff of life. So I stand by the album, it's a new album effectively. 

Me: It is? But it came out in 1992. 

Brian: But it's not been out there. I think it's bene about 20 years since someone could buy that album. It's never been out for streaming or downloading or anything. Never ever. So, folks, "Back to the Light" is a new album straight from my heart. 

Me: What was the motivation to do this solo album? Why was a solo project something you wanted to work on? 

Brian: It wasn't comfortable, that's the thing. We had this Queen family for many years. It's been very rocky but incredibly productive and incredibly creative and now we perceived because it must come to an end. 

Me: Why was that? 

Brian: Because Freddie's time on this planet was coming to a close. That's something we hardly talk about and we don't most of the time. We just get on and make music as best we can. But nevertheless there is that knowledge and I was just dealing with my personal stuff so I just needed to work at therapy for myself and try to find myself where it was a strange situation where everything was in flux. And I don't feel every day to get up and do the stuff I want to do. Sometimes I just don't want to get out of bed. I know a lot of people who have been in that situation. So on the days where I do feel productive I go in to what then was my little Billiard room down in the little country houser that I had. It's got a couple of tape machines, a mixing desk, nothing more and I go in there and just try to make music. I knew it was music for myself, it wasn't going to be for Queen. 

Me: Why is that? The music definitely could've been Queen music.  

Brian: That's a separate compartment. I had this overwhelming that Queen would be ending soon. So I'm doing it partly for therapy, partly because I want to find myself and partly because I don't even know who I am. I'm looking for that new identity if you like. 

Me: Were you bogged down by making this album? 

Brian: No, but I was bogged down by other things. 

Me: I'm sure, you were going through a lot. 

Brian: Yeah, my personal side was so draining. I felt like I didn't have a future. 

Me: You covered the Queen song "Too Much Love Will Kill" you on this album. Did you enjoy putting your own spin on it? 

Brian: No. "Too Much Love Will Kill You" kind of sums it up. I thought I was in a vice and I couldn't take a step in any direction because I didn't know what the direction was. That's a bad place to be in a state of kind of paralysis. If I'm not moving in my life I'm kind of dead. That's what that song is about and it's the only song I wrote in about a 12 month period. The rest of the time I was trying to find the energy and the motivation. 

Me: Did anything help you? 

Brian: Two things really helped me. "Driven By You," this is very uncharacteristic of me because I'm not a professional writer, nobody says, "Write me a song and I'll pay you, Brian." That just doesn't happen. But on this occasion I was offered a job to make a song for a TV commercial for a motor car, completely out of character and I went I don't know if I can do that. They told me the mantra, which is everything we do is driven by me. It hooked me, it inspired me. I could hear "everything I do is driven by you," I could hear the song, I could hear the chorus, it meant something to me on the level of motor cars and it also meant something to me on the level of relationships. Everything I do in a relationship is driven by "you." They call it co-dependancy. It's a therapy thing, so I was really into writing the song and did it really quickly. 

Me: So, did the car company like the song? 

Brian: Yeah, they loved it. I should talk to them about doing it again, shouldn't I for my reissue. 

Me: Reissue the car and reissue the song? Haha. 

Brian: Yeah, do a retro car ad. 

Me: So, did you play this song for Freddie? What was his thoughts on this? 

Brian: Yeah, I asked him what he thought because that's the normal way we behaved. If we did a track or we did a demo or whatever we'd always play it for each other and say, "Do you think this is a Queen track? Or should it be solo or whatever? Or should we just get rid of it?" I played it for Freddie and he really liked it. He said, "Yes, it's got great energy, it's really good." I said, "What do you think? Maybe it should be a Queen track? Do you want to sing it?" And he said, "Darling, you sing it beautifully. I don't think I should sing it. I think you should go with it." Then we had this strange conversation I had expected to have, it was in my mind but I never would have brought it up. Freddie said, "Look, I don't know how long I'm going to be around and I know you're probably feeling anxious about putting this out because you might be feeling it's disrespectful to me leaving me in the lurch." He said, "You shouldn't worry about it… We are here, we're doing what we always do. Business as usual. We're Queen as long as we can be. But you should be thinking about your solo career because that's going to come up. And this is a great way to start. Go out there and take it." 

Me: That must've made you feel great, right? 

Brian: It was great to have Freddie's blessing and he was that kind of a guy. He was very generous. I don't know if I could manage that kind of speech if I was in that situation. This gave me confidence because I had been paddling around thinking I'll make track here and there. But as soon as I delivered this and it was a hit, I thought, okay, I can do this. I can make a track and make an album. It's going to crystallize the emotions that I'm going through... the journey that I'm on... and it's going to be an album which means something to me and to people who listen to me. 

Me: I love the song "Nothin' But Blue" on the album, Brian. I am guessing that song is about Freddie... 

Brian: Yes, you're right, it's about Freddie. I had this kind of intuition and it was actually the night before he went that we recorded it. Cozy Powell had come in with this backing track which had all these beautiful chords on and I could just hear immediately, I scribbled a few words down and sang it and it was done in I suppose a couple of hours really. I played the guitar really quick. I had this wonderful Joe Satriani guitar, a big chrome plated guitar which he'd given me and that inspired me as well. A lot of that was played on that guitar which I never do. Usually I play on my own guitars the whole time. But I had Freddie in my mind and I just had this feeling he was about to go. And all I could think about was what might have happened, what might have been... and it was now not going to happen. So I was kind of projecting what I was going to feel like in the song and it came out very quickly and very fluid. I do love it, I love the freshness of it. It's the only track on the album which is for Freddie. The time I didn't say so, only a few people really twigged it. But there's lot of clues in there. If you listen carefully there's a lot of little bits of Freddie writing in there and Freddie phrasing. A little bit of "Champions" is in there. It's written all over the walls what it's about. 

Me: Yeah, I figured it out. Would you say writing this song and with the others helped you with grief? 

Brian: Absolutely, yeah, it's the best therapy. Creation is therapy and if I'm putting my heart and soul and my pain in creating, yes, it's very helpful. 

Me: Losing my dad I never get over grief, I just learned to process it. Is that the same with you?

Brian: Yeah, I think that's right. We don't ever get over it, we just put it in a different place, find the peace with it. Freddie was like family. It was definitely a family that we had. And losing him as a family member is something that never goes away. Same time I get to a different place, I get to a place of peace and I think both Roger and I and John in his own way grieved for a long time in a kind of unreasonable way. Both Roger and I went out and denied that we've ever been in Queen. It was quite odd. It was like we didn't want to talk about it. 

Me: That's one of the stages, right? Denial. 

Brian: I think it is. There's anger there as well. It's a strange sense of frustration and anger, like being left or something. It's not the emotions that I expect. So we did that and it was such a very strange time. But now I think of Freddie every day but it's a good feeling, a feeling of pride that we had those great times together and we created all those things together. That we had the great friendship that we had. 

Me: When you think of him now is there a story about Freddie that says to you who he was? 

Brian: There's so many things really. It was very easy to misunderstand Freddie. 

Me: Really? Why is that? 

Brian: He could look selfish, he could look very self centered. But it was because he was so focused. He had no patience for fools or for wasting time. I found myself a lot of times apologising for Freddie, knowing where he was coming from but knowing what it looked like. People would come up in restaurants and say, "Could I possibly bother you for an autograph?" And he's go, "Don't be fucking ridiculous. I'm eating my dinner, I need my time." It happened a lot and sometimes people would get offended and I'd explain that Freddie was in the middle of recording and he doesn't want to talk because it hurts his voice, etc, etc. Sometimes people would actually get it. I remember one girl coming up, we were just going to the studio and this girl comes up and goes, "Can I have your autograph, Freddie, it would mean so much to me?" And he said, "Oh, fuck off, darling." He was tired and he goes in and I'm left with this girl and she goes, "He told me to fuck off. That's so wonderful." Ha ha. I think she got it. 

Me: Ha. Did you guys get a lot of fan mail? 

Brian: I remember mountains of gifts coming into us from the Japanese fans, who are always so wonderful. We have a special connection with Japan, there is no doubt. And he had this beautiful house which he had not long moved into in Kensington and this kind of crate of presents arrived for him and he went, "Oh, darling, just see of there's any Samurai swords in it and get rid of the rest." 

Me: That's bloody rude, don't you think? 

Brian: He's tongue and cheek, but he's focused. He doesn't want clutter in his life, he just wants what he wants in his life. He wants to sing, that's all he wants to play, he wants to entertain, he wants to be an artist. That's Freddie. 

Me: Okay, so, you guys were in hiatus and then played with Paul Rodgers and with Adam Lambert. What made you decide to go on as Queen? 

Brian: We didn't look for it. We always imagined if one of us went that was the end. I was firmly convinced it was all over. But I used to drive out passed those beautiful arenas where we used to play, like Madison Square Garden and I used to go "I used to do that, that's never going to happen again." We're never going to be in there and I was convinced. Roger too, he thought it was over. I was all right about it, I thought that was part of my life, I'm having a different kind of life now. But then a couple of things happened. The Paul Rodgers thing happened completely by accident. I ended up playing an awards show, playing "All Right Now" with Paul. It felt so great because I was such a fan of both Paul and Kossoff who did the original riff. We came off stage having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and Paul's lady was there and said, "Hm, you guys seem to get on really well, all you need is a drummer." I went, "Okay, I know a drummer." I talked to Rog and he said, "Oh my God, I never thought of that. We could play with Paul." So we did and it just happened in a very relaxed kind of way. Suddenly we were playing in front of 120,000 people. And it became serious and we toured the world. There we were... Queen + Paul Rodgers. 

Me: I love Paul, he was one of my dad's best friends. Why did the you and Paul stop working together and get Adam Lambert? 

Brian: It came to a logical end because Paul has to return to his mainstream obviously. So we parted company in a very amicable way. And again both Roger and myself went that's it, we've done it now. We've done Queen, we don't need to do that anymore. We have our lives, we have a comfortable place to be, we can get on with other stuff. Then along comes Adam Lambert, and he's literally like a Gift from God that I call him. Suddenly out of the blue there's this guy who could do it all, who can sing it, who can perform it, who can relate to the audience, who has the entertainment value and camp value and he's a nice person. Suddenly, okay, it's a no brainier, we have to see what happens if we play with this guy. And we did "The Show Must Go On," "Rock You," "Champions," and it was a home run. Everybody went you got to do this. so we did and become a very efficient and rather glorious touring entity I think. It's quite self unconscious, we just do what comes naturally and it's like Adam's always been there. He's like a young brother, but the age difference doesn't make any difference. We've had a great time and people have come to love it and get into it. 

Me: So, you never set out to find a replacement singer? 

Brian: We never looked for it, it just happened. 

Me: I love your unique guitar sound, Brian. What was your first guitar? 

Brian: I built my first guitar from scratch when I was a teen. 

Me: That's crazy. What was that like and why build one? 

Brian: Me and my dad made a guitar because we couldn't afford one. We couldn't afford to buy a Fender or a Gibson. We couldn't even afford to buy the English copies of those things. So, we made it, I designed it from scratch, in fact I did my one shapes from my own cut down from what I envisioned a Spanish guitar to be cut into. And it was out of bits and pieces, and old oak table that my dad had lying around, a piece of that is the oak insert for the body that takes the strain. The neck is a piece of hundred year old fireplace that's 150-years-old now. It was all carved by hand, we had no machine tools or whatever. Everything was carved out, sanded, polished by hand and it's my guitar. It was designed to feed back, I think it was the first guitar where that would be the case. 

Me: Why is that? 

Brian: Because everyone was designing guitars not to feed back. It's ironic, isn't it, the Fenders, all the Stratocasters, all the Gibsons, Les Pauls, or whatever or designed totally solid body so they don't make this ugly sound that amplified acoustic guitars made in those days. But of course we had Pete Townshend, Jimi Hendrix, and who who followed who turned the game up so loud that they did feed back. I wanted my guitar to feed back in the right way, so I put these little acoustic pockets in the body and I don't know if my design was right or I was just really lucky, but it works, it's just a great live instrument and it feeds back. It'll feed back for ever, I'm sounding like Spinal Tap now. The guitar became my voice. 

Me: Okay, so, how did you come up with the Brian May guitar signature sound? 

Brian: There's a couple more elements, Rory Gallagher came into it because I wanted that "voice" that Rory Gallagher had. I wanted the sustain and the articulation and I stayed backstage at the Marquee after he played one night and said, "How do you do that, Rory, where's your sound coming from?" He was a very openly, wonderful gentleman guy he was, he said, "Brian, it's easy, I have this guitar which happens to be a Fender, and I have this little treble booster which boosts the sound, it's a Range Master, and it sits atop the AC-30 and the AC-30 is where all the sound comes from, there is no other amp like an AC-30. It doesn't sound like a Marshall or any other thing, it has its own class A sound. That's where my sound comes from." He said, "When I'm at low volume it's nice and clear and articulated, you can hear chords and as I turn it up it gets more and more saturated and eventually at full volume it sings." So there next day and go and buy myself two AC-30's and a Range Master treble booster, plug it into my guitar and that's my sound. It hasn't really changed in the 50 years since then. 

Me: So, what do you think about "Queen's Greatest Hits" being back on the charts, Brian? 

Brian: Amazing. 

Me: What is it and still makes the band still so popular do you think? 

Brian: I don't know. I think we speak the language of the common man honestly. I think we speak of the hopes and dreams and the pain and disappointment of everyone. We don't speak like rock stars, I think that's maybe the secret. Also we were very competitive as writers, the four of us all wrote hits and we were fiercely critical of each other and raised each other's game I think. So we had a powerful writing team, we had a powerful production team, because we learned our lessons from early on from the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. But we had superiour technology because it was advancing. So the Beatles were working on a sixteen track, we were working on a 24 track then a 48 track and then an infinite number of tracks. As it foes on we have digital slave tracks. So we have a powerful kind of machine in our grasp, and we talk about real things, I think that's it. We're very old school, we talk about the hopes and dreams of every man, I think that's it. I think that's why people relate. "I Want It All," "I Want to Break Free." 

Me: What story does "Bohemian Rhapsody" tell, Brian? Haha. 

Brian: It tells the story of ultimately of release. It's the stuff of reality I think. 

Me: Brian, thanks so much for being on the Phile. This was a big deal for me, sir. 

Brian: Thank you. Thank you for being so supportive and so well prepared, my God, I don't encounter people like you very often.

Me: Thanks. That means a lot.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Brian May for a great interview. The Phile will be back on Monday with Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze. Only three more to go, kids! Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...