Born in 1947, Brian May had the opportunity to explore rock and roll while he was in his teen days. Rock music was just starting to take its shape in the ’60s and May was able to witness it, this impacted his life deeply and he forever became a rock and roll fan.
Back at the time guitarists like Buddy Holly, Hank Marvin, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, and Jeff Beck were some of the influencing guitarists that Brian May looked up to. “When I look back on it, I don’t think I could have been born at a better time,” he told Guitar World. “As kids, we were so lucky to have grown up in that period when things were bursting through and all the boundaries were being broken”.
Among all these guitarists The Who’s Pete Townshend holds a special place in May’s heart. May grew up watching The Who. He witnessed their prime moment when he was just an ordinary artist. In 2019 Brian recalled the moment when he went to see The Who performing live with BBC Radio.
“They came from Shepherd’s Bush. Very much a local phenomenon for us and we used to go and see them. Rog(er Taylor) and me. It was about the most dangerous concert you could ever go to. Because you never knew if they would turn up, to start with.”
May was talking about the year 1969 when he was only 22. “And when they did turn up it was mayhem let loose. It was just so loud, dangerous and anarchic, I guess. This was long before Punk. So I think The Who kind of wrote the recipe for Punk, if you like. So they played local to us and we went to see them a lot. We followed them, we loved them. They ripped out the rulebook,” May said.
May even appreciated Pete Townshend’s skill in 2020 when a poll was conducted by Total Guitar on the greatest guitar player of all time and fans were happy to vote May as one of them.
However, Brian wasn’t quite satisfied with it. He didn’t consider himself the greatest guitar player of all time. Instead, he mentioned Pete Townshend as a prominent songwriter and the guitar God.
“I’d seen feedback, I’d seen Pete Townshend – again, wow! Pete Townshend’s a god of guitar and always will be! I’d seen him stand there and let the guitar explode into life on its own,” Brian May said.
In a separate interview with Total Guitar May also explained how Townshend created a great impact on Queen, “We (Queen) wanted to take people off into the stratosphere. It’s always been that way with us. We were inspired by our heroes to do that, and I put The Who way up top of that list. Pete Townshend is the master of mood change, a master of the suspended chord. I owe so much to him.”
