https://external-preview.redd.it/ziXX2-es3uTOhPxW2y-Q8rBLzI-P22dqkGOxU-oB9rE.jpg?auto=webp&s=b752b3bc3b80d74b0bd899ca90d6ce0e6c749202
TIL Brian May, the lead guitarist for Queen and astrophysicist, dislikes smoking so much that he prohibited smoking indoors at concerts before smoking bans became the norm. The dislike for smoking was due to his father’s heavy cigarette use.
One of my favorite facts about him – apart from his physics degrees – is that he built his guitar himself with the help of his father out of an old chimney.
Yeah, he’s a cool dude.
Edit: Fixed a typo. And apparently it was the casing of a chimney! The Red Special really is a cool instrument.
TIL Brian May is also the lead guitarist for astrophysicist.
Is he the same Brian May that composed the soundtrack to Mad Max?
but freddie mercury smoked like a rocket.
I love Brian May, I work at a music university and he came to do a guest lecture for the students. Most of the lecture was talking about saving badgers, but what he said about music was really moving. The dude is super passionate about everything.
One of my favorite songs is **’39** . I was a kid very into sci fi books and physics when it came out; and I thought it sounded like a song about time travel and love. Later I learned that Brian May had a physics background and it is a song about time travel and love. It still makes me a little misty when I hear it.
Same here. Mother smoked. I hated it. Friends who came from smoke-free households all started smoking in their teens. 25 years later and some still haven’t kicked the habit.
I understand this about him. Very much so.
One of the biggest reasons I’m a rabid anti-smoker is my mom. We have a great relationship (and always have, outside this), but she was a chimney while I was growing up. EVERYTHING — my clothes, the car, the house — reeked of cigarettes until she finally quit. There was no way I could have gotten her to stop on my own. She was (and still is, really) very defensive. It finally took a prolonged (unrelated) stay in the hospital for her to give it up. Of course, I was already moved out by then.
But I know it negatively impacted my social life growing up.
Brian May is an awesome guy in general tbh
> In May 2013, May teamed up with actor Brian Blessed and Flash cartoonist Jonti “Weebl” Picking, as well as animal rights groups including the RSPCA, to form Team Badger, a “coalition of organisations that have teamed up to fight the planned cull of badgers”. With Weebl and Blessed, May recorded a single, “Save the Badger Badger Badger”
> In June 2013 renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough and rock guitarist Slash joined May to form the supergroup, Artful Badger and Friends, and released a song dedicated to badgers, “Badger Swagger
May’s Wikipedia page is a TIL goldmine.
Brian May is one of the great innovative guitarists of all time (my opinion). He created an amazing sound that was compelling, unique and authentic. I’d also suggest that to the casual observer, he is one of the most under-recognized (and under-appreciated) guitarists of all time.
Daddy issues, is there a rock star without them?
That’s not very rock and roll, bro.
Exact same reason I despise cigarettes. Dad would smoke inside the car with the windows rolled up when I was a kid, so either stick your face into dead of winter cold for fresh air or cigarette stench while you keep warm. Going to his parents place, you could move a picture frame off the wall and see a visible stain because they both smoked inside and I hated visiting them.
He’s suddenly my favourite member of Queen
Yeah man. I was in a band for a number of years before the bans started. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a small bar or an arena, that shit will stick to you like a disease and you’ll smell like it all night. If you dislike it you’re in for a bad time.
Oh god I get this 100%. Nothing sets my anxiety off like second hand smoke. My mom is a heavy smoker and smoked inside our house all the time. I hate hate hate that smell.
I’ve never heard Astrophysicist. Are they good?
Is he related to James May? I’ve never seen Brian before but they look super similar
Who the hell didnt ban people from smoking in their homes or business before a ban? When I was in charge of my life and environment I damn sure told people they couldnt smoke in my retail clothing shop. Nor home. Early 90’s.
Well it’s a filthy habit.
(former smoker)
I’m a simple man, I see Brian May or the Red Special, I upvote.
So he’s not a fan of every scene in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Good. If you smoke outdoors, you should be tortured and killed.
Sounds like something James May would have done
I have asserted for years that he truly is the most interesting man in the world!
Oddly, I actually kind of like being around people smoking because my parents smoked like chimneys, and it feels like my younger days. I may have just had a better childhood or something tho. Dunno
He also hates fashionable haircuts
I don’t like smoking cigarettes either, especially after watching somebody very close to me die from COPD..
Brian May is an astrophysicist? Honestly stunned
A small price to pay to have seen Queen.
I’m EXACTLY the same in my regard for smoking. It’s a horrific habit.
This would have been impossible to do in arenas in the seventies and eighties. I don’t know what they mean when thy say he ‘prohibited smoking indoors at concerts’. Did he have security guards in every aisle?? Cause I think that’s what it would have taken.
What happens if someone sparked a Doobie? Serious question. I can respect it if you are anti smoking but weed, nah. Worst show I’ve even been to was Everclear, don’t even ask, and that douche singer told everyone to put out the bud. Ah, you know you’re in Vancouver, B.C. right? You also did ‘every drug on the table’ so why be a hypocritical douche?
The dislike for smoking could have also been due to having a functional respiratory system and being a reasonable person.
Smoking has always been pants-on-head retarded. “Here, let me put this flaming shit in my mouth and suck down the caustic vapors that made me gag until I got used to it”.
Cigarette smoke in general makes my bones hurt and have a short breath.
I am so lucky that i was not born in a family of smokers.
Interesting. He is also a huge fan of 3D
[Sort of the 180-degree opposite:](https://www.stereogum.com/8110/joe_jackson_loves_smoking_hates_new_york/video/)
So…me. lol.
The Astrophysicist who taught us that fat bottom girls make the world go around!
Currently,Burton Cummings is in a dispute with his commercially zoned residence’s neighbour.
His dispute is over “loud noise”.
Bylaw officials don’t seem to favour his definition of loud.
But it is quite funny.
PS from the hearing of the tell,the volume of the dance studio he lives above is not unreasonable,and probably is happening during normal “business hours”.
[I had to check](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVEaiinEsT8), but nice touch having Brian not smoking in this Bohemian Rhapsody scene
The dislike for smoking is that smoke is not nice to non smokers. Saying it’s because of his dad is making out that not liking smoke is weird.
Ya that shit fucking stinks if you’re a non smoker. If you’re a smoker (like I used to be) a lot of the times you won’t give a shit about the smell.
They think Christopher Reeves’ wife died of lung cancer from second hand smoke from her concerts (singer).
A kindred spirit! Gg parental neglect
I would have not drank, smoked weed, taken LSD or mushrooms. I would have stayed celibate to see these guys in concert.