Brian May has explained why Queen refused to let a “gangster rapper” sample one of their tracks.
According to Radio X, in an interview with MOJO May said a rap artist wanted to use one of the band’s tracks as a sample in their music, but it didn’t align with Queen’s beliefs. While May didn’t reveal who the musician was, he did give their reasoning for rejecting the sample request.
“We have stopped them being used to promote violence or abuse, during the heyday of gangster rap when someone wanted to sample it in a song, we thought was abusive to women,” he said. “But otherwise, our songs are for everyone. All art is theft.”
Later in the interview, May said he originally disliked ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ due to its perceived glorification of Freddie Mercury‘s hedonistic lifestyle. “At the time, I didn’t feel comfortable about ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, probably for all the right reasons and the wrong reasons,” he said. “I think I resisted realising why people liked it for a long time.
“Now, I think people love it because it contains all their dark dreams of hedonism – and that’s fine,” May continued. “I hear it all the time, though. People say to me, ‘‘Who Wants to Live Forever’ feels like it was written for me, or my mum or my dad…’ It’s in people’s hearts and minds and becomes personal to them. That’s what makes a song live on.”
Brian May of Queen. CREDIT: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Global Citizen
In other Queen-related news, earlier this month May commented on whether new music might be coming from Queen – almost 30 years on from their last album.
In an interview with MOJO, May revealed that the door isn’t entirely closed on new Queen music, telling the magazine: “I think it could happen.”
He went on to say: “Both Roger [Taylor] and I are constantly writing and coming up with ideas and doing things in our studios. I could have the beginnings of a Queen song right there in front of me now. It’s just whether the idea reaches maturity or not. It’s whether that seed can grow.”
May also recently opened up about his fears that he would never play guitar again following suffering a stroke last year.
Meanwhile, last year Queen released a newly mixed, mastered and expanded reissue of their 1973 self-titled debut album.
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