Brian May's heartbreaking reaction to Freddie Mercury song

Sir Brian May has shared one thing that makes him think of his late friend, Freddie Mercury. The rockstar, 77, admitted that he becomes emotional when he hears one Queen song in particular, as it brings memories flooding back.

The singer, who recently suffered a stroke but is now stable, performed for a small crowd at Gibson Garage in London on Friday (February 18) to launch his Signature Gibson SJ-200 12-string guitar - A £6,899 acoustic, which includes a touching tribute to the Bohemian Rhapsody icon. While there, Brian explained that he feels like "a usurper" whenever he sings Love of My Life. Speaking about the track, he admitted: "I feel kind of like a usurper, because it's Freddie's song, and no one can sing it like Freddie." He added: "But I love to do it because it's been a thing that you can share with the audience, and I can throw off all the Guitar Hero stuff and just go down there and play and sing."

The guitarist played the delicate track on his prototype Gibson 12-string. He admitted that normally he doesn't have to do much singing while performing that song, as the crowd often hold up torches and loudly sing along at every venue.

Before the performance, May said: "Normally I don't have to sing too much because everybody sings it. Tonight, if I try and sing it, I have to sing the whole damn thing - that's probably inadvisable. Nevertheless, I thought it'd be a shame to go home without us doing Love on My Life."

In September 2024, May revealed he had suffered a "minor stroke". During an appearance on Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh in June, the presenter asked former EastEnders star and wife of Brian, Anita Dobson, about his recovery.

She replied: "He's good and he's still exercising and taking his tablets. He played at Coachella festival in America and you wouldn't know he'd been ill. He was top of his game - brilliant."

Last year, Brian opened up about his health scare with his followers, writing: "I'm here to bring you first of all some news, I think. The good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days. I say this because it was in some doubt because that little health hiccup happened about a week ago.

"What they called it was a 'minor stroke'. All of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn't have any control over this arm, so it was a little scary. I had the most fantastic care and attention from Frimley Hospital; blue lights flashing the lot, very exciting."

He later candidly discussed the severity of his condition, admitting that it took "sheer willpower" to recover. "I couldn't get a fork from the table to my mouth without it all going all over the place," he recalled. "It was scary."