Sir Brian May wishes his father was around to see his new Gibson guitar.
The Queen legend has partnered with the music brand for the new limited-edition Brian May SJ-200 12-String acoustic guitar and expressed sadness that his late father Harold is unable to see the special instrument.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz and assembled media at the launch of the guitar at the Gibson Garage in London on Tuesday (18.02.25), Brian said: “It’s a dream come true for me, from the days when I used to gaze enviously in the catalogues of Gibson and think, ‘I’ll never be able to afford anything like that’, which I couldn’t and that’s the reason I made my guitar.
“I wish my dad was here to see this amazing fruition of the collaboration that we’ve had.”
The 77-year-old rocker admits that he was glad that Gibson approached him about making the guitar as he was disappointed with his attempts to play the Queen song ‘Love of My Life’ at concerts.
Brian explained: “It came about because as you saw I’ve been playing ‘Love of My Life’ ever since Freddie (Mercury) went, of course I was playing it before he went, but ever since I’ve been doing it in every show Queen ever did with a 12-string guitar and I tried various different ones.
“I was getting slightly bogged down and not quite happy. A man from Gibson came along and said, ‘We can make you one if you like. We can make you one for the upcoming tour’. It was actually a British tour, I did a British tour with it. It arrived just in time for our rehearsals at the O2.
“Then it went all around America with me, that’s the prototype, and then all around Japan. And it’s here today. It’s not the full monty, it hasn’t got all the insignia on it and it was the prototype for what is being now launched as the Brian May model.”
The ‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ artist – who performed at the event alongside Arielle, the star of the musical ‘We Will Rock You’ – soon realised that the guitar was “perfect” as it is easy on his fingers.
May said: “As soon as I held it, I thought, ‘Ah this is what I need, this is just perfect’. It has such presence, such beautiful breadth of sound and it’s friendly. It’s nice and easy on the fingers, which you need because 12-string guitars can be like cheese graters to play. It’s tough on your fingers, so you need something that’s friendly.
“They’ve done the most beautiful job.”