Brian May feels “so frustrated” by Taylor Hawkins’ death.
The 74-year-old Queen guitarist was good friends with the late Foo Fighters drummer – who passed away on 25 December aged just 50 – and admitted it “feels all wrong” for the musician to have lost his life at such a relatively young age and there’s a part of him that hopes speaking about the tragedy enough would bring his pal back to life.
He said: “Taylor wasn’t even my generation. I think of him as a boy — same as I saw George Michael as a boy — to lose them feels all wrong. It makes you feel so frustrated. It makes you feel like you want to negotiate with death. It makes you feel like if you looked at it enough, if you talk about it enough, if you analyse it enough then maybe you can bring him back, but of course, that’s just not the way it all works.”
Taylor was a huge Queen fan, and Brian admitted he was “the best publicist for Queen ever”.
He added: “He’s been so good for our image! Where he kind of regarded us as cool – which at the time a lot of people didn’t…
“We instantly bonded because Taylor and Pat Smear were the most informed Queen fans, they knew more about us than we did. We were just shocked to find out how much they felt about us.”
The ‘I Want To Break Free’ rocker had spoken to Taylor just a week before he died after complaining of chest pains at his hotel in Colombia.
Speaking on the ‘Debatable’ show on SiriusXM, Brian said: “Taylor was very close to [Queen], he’s been in my studio a few of times. In my life, I talk to him often. I talked to him just a week ago from when we lost him.
“We talk about stuff, talking about Dave [Grohl], about what life is like, his joys, frustrations, being in Foo Fighters.”