‘s guitar solo is one of the most famous in music history. However the legendary guitarist has admitted he doesn’t “find it easy” to play even after all these years. The song will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this year having been released for the first time in October 1975, but five decades on Sir Brian says “it’s not the easiest thing to play”.
“It’s not a riff that a guitarist would naturally play… It’s difficult for the guitar to get a hold of it, but once you have got hold of it, it’s very unusual. And to be honest, I still don’t find it easy!” he said. “I can play it at home okay, but in the heat of the battle…when we’re playing it live, and there’s huge adrenaline, it’s the climax of the show and that riff comes along, it’s not the easiest thing to play.”
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Brian May opened up about the one song that he still finds complex despite playing it for decades (Image: Getty)
“I’m excited and I’ve got to keep the passion, but I’ve got to keep a part of my brain cool just to handle where the fingers have to go because it isn’t natural.
“It’s one of the most unnatural riffs to play you could possibly imagine. But that’s that is the joy of it, really, because it’s so unusual,” he told in a 2024 interview.
He also confessed that the riff came from the imagination of lead singer rather than himself. He explained Freddie had the riff in his head and played it for him on the piano.
Brian then took that and said he adapted it for the guitar. He conceded this was “quite difficult” due the fact Freddie played in octaves.
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Brian May admits Freddie Mercury came up with the famous Bohemian Rhapsody guitar solo (Image: Getty)
The song featured on the band’s iconic album A Night At The Opera and was their sixth single release.
The six-minute iconic mini rock opera would become the band’s defining song, and even provided the title of the Oscar winning 2019 biopic starring Rami Malek as Freddie.
However their record company were reluctant to release it as a single given the lengthy running time which exceeded the three-minutes rexpected of most singles at the time.
Although the band were told the song had no hope of getting airplay, Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett, who was a friend of Freddie’s stepped in and played it 14 times in one weekend. This started the buzz that eventually ended up giving the band their first ever No. 1 single.