NEED TO KNOW
Life took a turn for Brian May last year.
The Queen guitarist revealed in September 2024 that he suffered a “minor stroke” and temporarily lost movement in his left arm. This week, May shared a health update in an interview with Alan Titchmarsh on ITV’s Love Your Weekend.
“I’ve been lucky, I get these things, but I seem to be able to get out of them. They give you a wake-up call,” said the 77-year-old rock icon on the series, according to multiple outlets.
May explained he’s now placing more of a focus on his health. “I keep moving, I do my biking a lot of times a week,” he said. “I do a hundred lengths in the pool once a week. To me, that’s what’s keeping me going. That’s what’s keeping me alive.”
Doctors have said he’s “doing the right things,” according to May. “So, for now, I’m still here,” he said.
In September 2024, May detailed the stroke in a video on Instagram. “They called it a minor stroke, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, I didn’t have any control of this arm,” he said at the time. “It was a little scary, I have to say.”
He opened up further about the experience, noted that he was taken to the hospital with “blue lights” flashing — joking that it was “very exciting” — and doctors gave him “the most fantastic care and attention.”
“I didn’t wanna say anything at the time because I didn’t want anything surrounding it, I really don’t want sympathy,” said May. “Please don’t do that, because it’ll clutter up my inbox, and I hate that. The good news is I’m okay.”
Miikka Skaffari/Getty
Since suffering the stroke, May has returned to the stage — notably twice alongside Benson Boone over the past year at Coachella and in London.
The Queen member has endured several health scares in the past, including a heart attack in May 2020. He also underwent “a little bit of eye surgery” in 2021, telling Good Morning Britain that he’d nearly died of “shocking” complications from heart attack medication.
