Brian May interview: "Good Morning Britain" - transcript

Brian May Good Morning Britian

TRANSCRIPT by Jen Tunney
E&OE – corrections welcome
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SUSANNA REID: 7.48 Still to come on the programme, Queen rocker, Brian May is causing trouble with Donald Trump and badgering DavidCameron to change government policy. FInding on why he’s happy to take on the world’s most powerful political leaders – next,

So our next guest is the fabulous Brian May and it’s great to see this morning.

BRIAN MAY: Ooh, it’s fabulous?

SUSANNA: Yeah why not?

PIERS MORGAN: Gotta say, you look amazing, ‘cos I know how old you are. If you do’t mind me saying, you’re 69 years old, right, near turning 70. Do you , are you fearing he onslaught of the big 7O, as a rocker?

BRIAN: No no, I feel me age, I do, you know. I feel it after you I could do the same stuff but it takes a lot more out of me now, yeah.

PIERS: And what’s touring like? I mean you guys have been touring for like 50 years?

BRIAN: We’ve had a bit of a renaissance, you know. It’s amazing with this young Adam Lambert guy! He has been great and it’s Queen as you know Queen, you know, and I think Freddie would be very happy with the kind of stuff we’re doing. And it’s been wonderful. It has been great to be out there and I feel it’s energising, and it makes so many people happy. It’s been great.

SUSANNA: Now [you perform] do you what you love most and you haven’t lost the energy for tour have you, because you are continuing to talk but you are also campaigning. You are, as we said earlier, badgering the Prime Minister over a cull.

BRIAN: Whoever the Prime Minister might be.

SUSANNA: Yeah well, and it might be Andrea Leadsom, of course, who has very strong….

PIERS: Wants to bring back fox hunting.

BRIAN: Yeah, I know yeah. Let’s bring back blood sports, yeah. What a great idea in the middle of all this mess, yeah.

SUSANNA: Well you wouldn’t want to be quoted out of context on that.

BRIAN: And its an end of of gay marriage as well. I mean that’s… i mean I find it fearsome and I find absolutely terrifying, you know, but we shouldn’t go there too much.

PIERS: Well let’s go there ‘cos actually I mean you’ve been very political of life.

BRIAN: I have.

PIERS: What do you make of what’s happening with Britain at the moment.

BRIAN: (chuckles) My first reaction was it’s a disaster. This is really just because nobody had a plan and I think we all – I don’t blame the voters from voting out, because I think they were given very good reasons. The reasons turned out to be lies unfortunately…. Yeah, they all got worried about immigration – got worried about being dictated to by foreigners, or whatever, but of course Brexit will not fix those things. That’s the terrible thing. I have every sympathy with people in Wigan who thought, you know, ‘Let’s reclaim Britain’, but it ain’t gonna happen.

PIERS: And when you see that Andrea Leadsom, who may well end up being Prime Minister, wants to bring back fox hunting, as an animal lover like you what do you feel of that?

BRIAN: I think that she will actually lose her party at the election if she does because it’s been [defeated]. David Cameron backed off and we had a lot to do with that. He tired to get the vote in to bring back the blood sports and failed because so many of his own party basically are against him and that will still be the case if you had a vote today in the House of Commons, of course, they would still defeat that and fox hunting ban would stay. She’’s on a losing wicket there.

SUSANNA: It’s not just the uK Prime Minister that you want to take on. You also want to take on US presidential hopefuls. You have had a word with Donald Trump’s people apparently.

BRIAN: Well not personally.

SUSANNA: You don’t want them – you don’t want to him, using ‘We Are The Champions’ at rallies.

BRIAN: No, we didn’t. You know, he didn’t ask and I think even if he had asked if we would, it would have been a “No”. I think it’s the wrong kind of use for music, as a political end. I mean it’s a tricky situation. I got loads of people going “Hey Brian, what a great job you did banning this horrible person from using ‘We Are The Champions”. I also got people saying “How dare you use your music and some kind of weapon. What would you say to Hilary Clinton”? Now I don’t know what I would say Hilary Clinton, to be honest.

SUSANNA: Is she using any of your music? BRIAN: Not as far as I know. PIERS: Would you stop her if she was? BRIAN: Well, you see, that’s the question PIERS: I can imagine that at least half your fans in America are probably Republicans. A lot of them will love Donald Trump.

BRIAN: Yeah, I know.

PIERS: Is it tricky when you’re a major rock act with a global following to take positions that are quite polarising?

BRIAN: I think it’s tricky, yeah, but we do have opinions you know, and Trump is a very dangerous man. I think that whole extreme right thing is a very terrible place for us to be going in the world. You know, I hate to see the racial stuff that’s coming up in this country as well. I find it deeply upsetting. So yes, there’s a bit of partisan thought there.

SUSANNA: The other thing that, of course, people know you for the moment is standing up for badgers.

BRIAN: Indeed the badgers. And this a very interesting time. It’s one of the reasons I’ve come in here today. As you know we have meeting, a presentation in the House of Commons tomorrow to do with the Badger Mosaic, which is something which we together as a collection of charities – Team Badger – and we have this mosaic where you can upload your picture, and it’s a sort of public relations. It’s a social media exercise if you like, but its showing the fact that people in the midst of all this chaos actually still care about animals, which I think is great. It’s also a great time because we’ve had some fantastic news from the farmers that we’re working with. We think we have a breakthrough in fixing TB.

PIERS: ‘Cos that’s the key to this. They’re trying to cull them using the pretext of TB. How can you deal with TB if you don’t cull the badgers?

BRIAN: They should not be killing badgers because every bit of evidence that there’s coming – more and more evidence comes in to say that this doesn’t solve the problem. Now, the Government’s chief advisor, Boyd, has said, you know, it’s perhaps a maximum of five per cent that the Badgers contribute to the spread. It’s all in the herd and we’ve been saying this for a long time. I’m not polarised, you know, and I know I’ve been so bad-mouthed by the farmers when I resist sort of going back in that direction because I’m working with farmers and some have become very good friends. One particular farmer we’ve been working with doing extra testing, which is the key. The skin test is something awful, which stresses farmers and is not accurate. So what happens is you leave the infected animal in the herd. That’s what spreading the disease.

PIERS: Two quick question. We’re running out of time. I’m sad. I could talk to you for hours. One. What is the Queen song that you would play if you have five minutes to live?

BRIAN: Oh Lord. (chuckles) ’Who Wants To Live Forever’ I suppose. {Laughing)

PIERS: Secondly, your hair. The most famous hair in rock – how do you keep it in such magnificent condition?

BRIAN: It’s… you’re very kind. Your eyes are going probably. (laughing) It’s seen better days. It just does its thing, really, you know. It’s changed colour.

PIERS: Do you wake up like that?

BRIAN: No it wakes up looking like bed hair, like… (laughing)

SUSANNA: Can I just say – where’s the film? ’We’ve been waiting ages…

BRIAN: The film is taking some time but we think we’re in good shape. We have another meeting on that in a couple of days’ time. The guy at the helm is Graham King and he’s fantastic producer. He’s the only (indistinct) be well, yes,…. I think that a good announcement in a couple of months.

PIERS: Well we love Queen, don’t we, on the show? One of the greatest bands in the history of music One of the great guitarists in history. It’s a joy to have your here.

BRIAN: Thank you.

PIERS: Thank you very much. If you ever want a singer to replace Adam Lambert but doesn’t walk about … Baron Cohen still be a goon, I’m available. I am available. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – I can hit every high note.

SUSANNA: I don’t think Adam Lambert is going to…. (indistinct) (laughing)

PIERS: I’ve just been hired by Brian May to be lead singer of Queen. We’re done. Sorry – that’s showbiz.

SUSANNA: Crossing his fingers at the same time,

BRIAN: In the queue.

SUSANNA: Yeah – In the queue. Let’s find out what he weather is doing. It’s just turned eight.