Brian May reiterates why Queen won’t ever play Glastonbury Festival

Sir Brian May has doubled down on his attitude towards playing Glastonbury Festival.

The Queen guitarist has previously spoken about why his legendary rock band wouldn’t sign up to play the world-famous Somerset festival.

In 2019, May told BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball that Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis “has frequently insulted me” and is “in favour of the badger cull, which I regard as a tragedy and an unnecessary crime against wildlife”.

Now, Sir Brian has told The Sun in a new interview that his stance remains firm. “Would I ever do it? ” he said. “No. As the man who runs it advocates killing badgers for no good reason and I could never level with that.

“Have they tried to book us? I think the feeling is mutual so I think they understand how I feel.”

His latest comments come after Eavis in 2018 criticised the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ rocker’s opposition to the cull and called badgers a “danger to farming” [via Somerset Live].

May added in his 2019 comments to Zoe Ball: “There’s a little bit of a schism there, I wouldn’t do Glastonbury. Unless things changed radically.”

Meanwhile, earlier this month Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan appeared to let slip that the band would perform at this year’s Glastonbury. Festival organisers haven’t yet confirmed the news.

Last December, Elton John was announced as the first Glastonbury headliner for 2023 in what will mark the final UK show of the music icon’s last ever tour.

In other Queen news, last October the band shared ‘Face It Alone’, an anticipated ‘lost’ track featuring the vocals of their late singer Freddie Mercury.