Brian May: “John Deacon is still part of Queen”
The guitarist of Queen Brian May confirmed to Mojo magazine that the band’s former bassist John Deacon he is still involved in the group’s decision-making process.
“John still has the ability to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. We get messages saying he’s happy with what we’re doing, but he doesn’t want to go through the stress of being involved creatively, and we respect that. With Freddie Unfortunately we can’t talk. But the four of us have worked as a team for a really long time so that Roger and I have a pretty good idea of what our Queen bandmates would say. This lasts longer than anyone else’s marriage.” .
In a July 2023 interview with the British newspaper The Guardian, a Brian May was asked if he thought Deacon would leave the band after Freddie’s death. He responded by saying: “All I can say is that, historically, John was quite sensitive to stress. We all found it difficult to lose Freddie, but I think John particularly suffered. We did a couple of things together in 1996: recording of “No One But You”, the song I wrote about Freddie while we were erecting the statue to commemorate him in Montreux and a concert in Paris. It was to open the ballet season with an extraordinary new work by Maurice Béjart, about Mozart and Queen. We played with John on bass and Elton John sang with us at that moment, John looked at us and said: ‘I can’t do this anymore’ We knew he needed a break at least, but in the end he never came back go into much more detail – we have to respect the fact that John needs his privacy now – but it’s still part of the mechanism of the band we have to make a big decision, from a business point of view, it always comes through John. That doesn’t mean he talks to us – he generally doesn’t – but we still communicate in some way. He’s still part of Queen.”
John Deacon
he retired from music after Mercury’s death, explaining: “As far as we’re concerned, that’s how it is. There’s no point in going on, it’s impossible to replace Freddie.” Deacon played three more times with the band: at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, at a charity concert with
Roger Taylor
at Cowdray House in 1993 and, finally, in 1997, at the opening of the Bejart Ballett in Paris, where the band played one of the last songs recorded with
Freddie Mercury
,
“The Show Must Go On”
with
Elton John
behind the microphone.