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Queen’s Brian May reveals he suffered stroke which left him with ‘no control over one arm

The guitarist suffered the health scare last week.

By Nick Reilly

Queen's Brian May performs live
Queen's Brian May performs live (Picture: Alamy)

Queen‘s Brian May has shared a fresh health update with fans, after suffering a stroke which left him without the control of one arm.

The legendary guitarist revealed the health scare on social media, but reassured fans that he’s well on the road to recovery.

“I’m here to bring you first of all some news, I think. The good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” he said. “I say this because I was in some doubt, because a little health hiccup happened about a week ago. What they called it was a ‘minor stroke’.”

May recalled how the health scare had happened “all of a sudden, out of the blue” and left him without control over one of his arms.

“It was a little scary. I had the most fantastic care and attention from Frimley Hospital; blue lights flashing the lot, very exciting,” May said.

Explaining why he had chosen to remain quiet about the scare so far, May said: “I didn’t wanna 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’ll clutter up my inbox, and I hate that. The good news is I’m OK.”

He added: ““I’m ok and doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing,” May said. “I’m grounded, I’m not allowed to go out, drive, get on a plane, I’m not allowed to raise the heart rate too high. But I am good.”

In June, Queen reportedly reached a deal with Sony Music for the acquisition of their music catalogue.

According to reports at the time, the deal was set at USD$1.27billion (£1billion), which makes it the biggest ever. In comparison, Bruce Springsteen sold his back catalogue to Sony for an estimated $500 million (£393 million) in 2021, while the label also secured Bob Dylan’s back catalogue in 2022.