Brian May has made his strongest statement yet that Queen will not return to the road, but he and Roger Taylor are still considering a very different way to bring the band’s music to audiences.
by Paul Cashmere
Brian May has confirmed that he has no intention of touring with Queen again, saying the demands of life on the road have become a price he is no longer prepared to pay after almost 50 years as a professional touring musician.
The 79-year-old guitarist said he made the decision around 18 months ago after a close family friend died while Queen were touring in the United States. May wanted to return home for a few days before going back on the road, only to discover that the logistics of a major tour made that impossible.
“I made a decision 18 months ago that I didn’t want to tour again,” May said. “A close family friend died when we were in the States, so I said to my tour manager, ‘I’ll just nip home for a few days and come back.’ She looked me in the eyes and said, ‘You know you can’t do that.'”
The experience appears to have crystallised something May had already been considering. He remains passionate about performing and travelling, but no longer wants the loss of personal freedom that comes with committing to months of international touring.
“I love to play, I love to travel, but the trade-off is sacrificing your freedom,” he said. “I have a wife, grandchildren and a lot of astrophysics I want to do, so I’m thinking maybe 50 years is enough.”
That marks a significant change from May’s position earlier in 2026, when he had ruled out Queen performances in the United States but had not completely closed the door on playing elsewhere.
Queen and Adam Lambert have not performed together since the Rhapsody Tour concluded with a show in Tokyo in February 2024. The touring partnership had kept Queen on major international stages for more than a decade, following Lambert’s first performances with May and Roger Taylor in 2011.
May’s decision does not mean Queen has reached the end of its creative life.
He and Taylor are considering an immersive Queen production that could use technology to place audiences inside the band’s music rather than recreate a conventional arena concert. May visited Sphere in Las Vegas last year and began sketching ideas for a Queen production inspired by the possibilities of an immersive venue.
“Last year I went to the Sphere, my juices started flowing and I sketched out a whole Queen show,” May said.
The concept would not be a direct replica of ABBA’s digital-avatar production. Taylor described the proposed project as something “fairly revolutionary”, while May suggested an immersive Queen experience could still “conquer time and space”.
There is, however, a major obstacle. May has serious reservations about the use of artificial intelligence, particularly when it replaces human creativity.
He recently abandoned a proposed video for his song My Angels Are Calling after AI-generated elements were introduced. May has argued that the technology can have useful applications, but believes its broader consequences raise serious ethical questions.
That concern could become an important factor in whether an immersive Queen production ever reaches the stage.
The idea also comes with an unusual historical twist. When Freddie Mercury died in 1991, May and his Queen bandmates did not expect the group to continue as a live act. “We always said that if any of us went, that was the end,” May recalled.
Instead, Mercury’s remaining recordings became the basis for the 1995 album Made In Heaven. Queen subsequently returned to live performance with Paul Rodgers and later with Adam Lambert, taking the band back into arenas that May had never expected to play again.
That chapter now appears to be closing. May’s comments suggest that if Queen performs again, the experience may look very different from the traditional touring model that defined the band for decades.
There is an appropriate piece of Queen history returning to cinemas this week. Queen Budapest, the restored 4K version of the band’s 27 July 1986 concert at Budapest’s Népstadion, screens in cinemas and IMAX worldwide from October 7 for a limited time. It captures the final filmed Queen concert with Freddie Mercury and one of the most significant shows of the Magic Tour.
The Budapest concert was filmed less than two weeks before Queen’s final concert with Mercury at Knebworth Park on August 9, 1986. The restored film has been created from the original 35mm footage with newly remixed audio from the original multitrack recordings.
Queen Budapest Tracklisting
One Vision
Tie Your Mother Down
In The Lap Of The Gods… Revisited
Seven Seas Of Rhye
Tear It Up
A Kind Of Magic
Under Pressure
Who Wants To Live Forever
I Want To Break Free
Guitar Solo
Now I’m Here
Love Of My Life
Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt
Is This The World We Created…?
Tutti Frutti
Bohemian Rhapsody
Hammer To Fall
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Radio Ga Ga
We Will Rock You
Friends Will Be Friends
We Are The Champions
God Save The Queen
Queen Budapest screens in cinemas and IMAX from October 7 for a limited time. The restored concert is also scheduled for release on 3LP, 2CD, DVD, Blu-ray and digital formats.
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