Brian News - January 2008

**Fri 04 Jan 08**
BRIAN MAY - THIS MORNING TRANSCRIPT

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This Morning (UK)
ITV1 04/01/2008
Time of Broadcast:10:41

Hosts: Julian Clary and Ruth Langsford. THIS MORNING: Also coming up this morning, remember this? (We Will Rock You plays) Great stuff, isn't it. Rock royalty we have in the studio no less this morning, Queen guitarist, Brian May. Good morning to you, Brian.

BRIAN MAY: Morning

RUTH LANGSFORD: How are you? That's woken us all up this morning.

BM: Just about.

RL: Are you well?

BM: Yes very well.

RL: You haven't had the lurgy then?

BM: No. I think I may be getting something. No I'm not. No I'm fine. I'm very fine.

JULIAN CLARY: Well you look very good this morning. ... You may be taking something away with you. RL: (coughs) We're passing our germs on to our guests already.

JC: I've never interviewed meet a rock star before.

RL: Haven't you?

JC: No.

RL: Exciting.

JC: More from Brian in about five minutes. ---

RL : Now then, when it comes to bands, you don't get much bigger than Queen, do you? It's estimated they've sold over 300 million albums worldwide and with classic hits like these, it's easy to see why they're still rocking the world.

JULIAN CLARY: Joining us now is founding member and lead guitarist, Brian May. You haven't changed your hairstyle recently either, have you? (laughing)

BRIAN MAY: It may change anyway I think.

JC: You were just saying that you've met Britney, and she was delightful.

BM: I worked with her, yes, on a Pepsi ad strangely enough, which we made a version of "We Will Rock You" with Pink and Beyonce and Britney, and she was fabulous, I have to say, yeah, and she's got a real aura about her. I feel very sorry for her. I think it's a kind of Judy Garland syndrome, you know, and didn't get a chance to grow up in any way in private.

RL: ... In her twenties?...

BM: Yeah.

RL: She obviously just needs some support around her, doesn't she?

BM: Yeah.

RL: (Can't) be easy in that kind of world that she moves in.

BM: That's right. Whatever the reasons are for this, you've gotta feel for her, I think. It's a hard place to be.

JC: Nice glass of water, that's what she needs.

RL: Nice cup of cocoa and be tucked up for a few days. It is great to see you and the reason you're here is because you've got a new single out yes. Let's hold this up.

BM: [Indistinct] Sell, sell sell.

RL: There you go. It's the new "Say It's Not True" and this is your first single in ten-odd years?

BM: Many many years, yes that's right. The last one was "No One But You", which was the first one we did without Freddie, but then for a long time we really didn't wanna be Queen. Great reluctance to do anything without Freddie. Having met Paul Rodgers, who you see here [picks up the CD], we've sort of made a new band and we didn't really know what to call it, so it's called "Queen and Paul Rodgers" and I don't quite know what that means, but there's elements of us, obviously over the years, and there's a lot of Paul in it and I'm enjoying it.

RL: It must've been a very, very difficult time, you know. There you were with this amazing band, known the world over, that to then try and ask somebody to step into Freddie's shoes, for you and Roger, but also for Paul Rodgers, very difficult shoes to fill.

BM: Yeah, it's not really stepping into Freddie's shoes. It's a different situation I think, you know, and we're going into it quite fresh. All the material that we're doing now is new, which is great.

JC: This song's got an interesting history.

BM: It has. Roger wrote this a while ago for Nelson Mandela and his 46664 charity, which is all about AIDS education and relief worldwide, but particularly in South Africa, obviously. And then recently we revisited it for the album and suddenly it exploded and became this big epic, which is great, I think, and Paul makes a wonderful job. We all sing on it. I sing, Roger sings and Paul sings the end bit, and it gets big and heavy. We thought it would be a nice sort of introduction to 'What the hell is Queen and Paul Rodgers?" for people who didn't see us on tour last year.

JC: We can see a bit, can we?RL: We can see a bit. Let's have a look. I have a cough. Excuse me. This is Queen and Paul Rodgers, Say It's Not True.

JC: Fabulous. It's got that recognisable, Queen, stirring, epic quality, hasn't it?

BM: Still sounds like us, doesn't it, you know.

RL: Is the r... what's the message behind this song?

BM: Well Roger wrote the song. It's really about somebody finding out that they have AIDS and what that means and really, you know, a message for everyone to realise that it's still out there and the crisis is not over, plus, we have a whole generation of kids growing up in Africa who have no parents, no teachers in their life.

RL: What do you think in a sense Freddie's death in 1991, what do you think the public perception is now of HIV and AIDS. Are you shocked that people still really don't know enough about it?

BM: Well I think people get bored with things, don't they, easily. There's a big fuss about things and then that was last year and then they don't bother any more and they don't realise that it's still there, and we all need to be very very careful. We end up waking up, you know, and end up having this dreadful disease. Obviously, yes, we have kind of been living with the thoughts ever since we lost Freddie, and you keep kind of bargaining. You know, part of the whole progress, you keep thinking 'What if?' What if the retro viral drugs had been available a little earlier, we wouldn't have lost him. But the whole thing about Freddie is we want him to be remembered for what he was and not the way he died.

RL: And we do, and we have great memories of him, which won't go away. What are the plans for the band, 2008, New Year?

BM: We will tour I think at the end of this year. We're starting about September. We're gonna do some dates in Europe and we have an O2 [Arena] date, which we haven't announced yet. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I think we have an O2 date, which is great.

TM: We'll look out for that. When will you know the date?

BM: Hmmm.... Pretty soon.

JC: Good luck with this single then.

BM: Thank you very much. This is a real single. I don't know how much longer there will be these things. I mean, this was a download and we released this because you can actually hold it in your hand. It smells that good.

(laughing)

RL: Well it was goo to see you and have to say your wife, Anita's on, Anita Dobson's on..

.BM: She's coming to see you next week, isn't she?

RL: Yes.

JC: The single's released at the end of this week or next week?

BM: It's released now.

RL: Oh really.

JC: It's out now.

RL: Available now. Get out and buy it.

BM: Anita will be coming to see you as Dolly Levi and for a lot of next year

.RL: Thank you, Brian. Nice to see you.


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