Queen guitarist suffers minor stroke but says he’s OK

Queen guitarist Sir Brian May has revealed he recently suffered a minor stroke, which left him unable to use his left arm.

However, the 77-year-old rock legend said he’s now OK and has regained enough movement to be able to play music again.

“The good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” he said in a video posted on his website on Wednesday.

“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.

“All of a sudden – out of the blue – I didn’t have any control over this arm. So it was a little scary, I have to say.”

He praised doctors at Frimley Hospital in Surrey, “where I went, blue lights flashing, the lot – very exciting”.

“So, the good news is I’m OK. I’m just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing.”

He said he had been “grounded”, adding: “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.”

Sir Brian filmed the video outdoors, and as a plane could be heard overhead, he joked: “I’m not allowed to have planes flying over, which will stress me. But I’m good.”

The star added that he didn’t say anything publicly at the time the minor stroke happened because “I really don’t want sympathy”.

“Please don’t do that because it’ll clutter up my inbox and I hate that,” he added.

The revelation comes almost two weeks after the broadcast of a BBC One documentary fronted by Sir Brian about his campaign to protect badgers from being culled.

In his new video, he also discussed the programme, saying it had received some “great reactions from farmers particularly – also from wildlife people of course”.

Badger culling is used as a way to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.

The musician added: “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.”

The show was criticised by bodies including the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which said it was “missing key evidence that would have helped to inform viewers on the facts about bovine TB”.

The NHS says a stroke is a serious life-threatening medical condition that happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off.

One sign is often that the person has weakness or numbness in one arm, as well as one side of their face appearing to drop, and their speech being slurred or garbled.

There’s also a related condition called a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), where the blood supply to the brain is temporarily interrupted, which causes what’s often described as a “mini-stroke”.

Find out more about how to spot a stroke on the NHS website.

May’s stroke comes four years after he had a “small” heart attack.

At the time, he said was shocked to realise he wasn’t as healthy as he thought, and he was “very near death”.

He discovered three arteries were “congested and in danger of blocking the supply of blood to my heart”, and subsequently had surgery to fit three stents – tiny tubes to hold open blocked arteries.

May’s guitar playing, songwriting and vocals helped propel Queen to be one of the biggest bands in the world in the 1970s and 80s.

He wrote hits including We Will Rock You, Who Wants to Live Forever and Flash, and co-wrote others.

After the death of frontman Freddie Mercury in 1991, the band have continued – with May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon joined by new singer Adam Lambert.

As well as his music career, May is known for his animal rights activism, and earned a PhD in astrophysics in 2007, 36 years after abandoning his thesis when the band took off.

He is married to former EastEnders actress Anita Dobson.