Sir Brian May shared the shocking news today that he recently suffered a minor stroke, following a heart attack in 2020.
The 77-year-old temporarily lost control of his arm leaving his guitar-playing days in doubt, but has since shared the good news that he can still perform.
In a new video on his Instagram, the Queen legend shared: “Hi folks, hope you’re all well out there.
“I’m here to bring you, first of all, some good news, I think.
“The good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days.”
Sir Brian continued: “And I say this because it was in some doubt, because that little health hiccup that I mentioned happened about a week ago, and what they called it was a minor stroke and all of a sudden out of the blue I didn’t have any control of this arm. So it’s a little scary I have to say. I had the most fantastic care and attention from the hospital where I went. Blue lights flashing, the lot. Very exciting. I didn’t want to say anything at the time because I didn’t want anything surrounding it. I really don’t want sympathy. Please don’t do that because it will clutter my inbox and I hate that. So good news is I’m okay, just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing. I’m grounded, I’m not allowed to go out, well, I’m not allowed to drive, not allowed to get on a plane, not allowed to raise the heart rate too high… but I’m good.”
The Queen star also gave an update on his recent BBC documentary, Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers and Me, saying that he’d had some great reactions from the farming community.
Sir Brian continued: “The other news is our documentary is very much in our minds, and we had some great reactions from farmers, particularly also from wildlife people, of course, because we’re very much in that corner still. But the documentary was really about the farmers, as people discovered to their surprise, I think. And it’s no surprise to me that we are not at odds at all with the farmers. We are at odds with the people being feeding them the wrong information which is the whole deal really. And we’ve been attacked very strongly from some quarters. And you have to look very carefully, because the people who are shouting the most, of course, are the people who feel most threatened. So I’m just going to leave you with that thought out.”