Sir Brian May, the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the legendary rock band Queen, has given his fans simultaneously good and bad news regarding his health.
Taking to Instagram on September 4, 2024, Brian revealed that he recently suffered a minor stroke and was temporarily unable to use one of his arms – but he’s now on the mend!
“I’m here to bring you some good news; 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 that I mentioned happened about a week ago and what they called it was a minor stroke,” Brain said.
The 77-year-old went on to say that he had “fantastic care” from his doctors and didn’t say anything at the time of the stroke because he didn’t want “sympathy”.
“I really don’t want sympathy. Please don’t do that because it’ll clutter up my inbox and I hate that,” he said.
“The good news is I’m okay. Just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing. I’m grounded.
“I’m not allowed to go out – well, I’m not allowed to drive, not allowed to get on a plane, not allowed to raise the heart rate too high … but I’m good.”
This isn’t the first time Brian May has faced a health scare.
In 2020, while seeing a doctor for another injury (a gluteal tear and a compressed sciatic nerve), the guitarist had a small heart attack.
He was then driven to hospital by said doctor and it was discovered that Brian had three blocked arteries.
“In the middle of the whole saga of the painful backside, I had a small heart attack. I say small, it’s not something that did me any harm.
“It was about 40 minutes of pain in the chest and tightness. It’s that feeling in the arms and sweating,” Brian shared on Instagram.
“I turned out to have three arteries which were congested and in danger of blocking the blood to my heart.”
Brian ultimately opted to have three stents to put in rather than undergo open heart surgery and made a full recovery.
In 1970, Brian – along with Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor – co-founded Queen.
