“IN THE HEAT OF THE BATTLE, WHEN WE’RE PLAYING BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY LIVE AND HAT RIFF COMES ALONG, ’M EXCITED, BUT I’VE GOT TO KEEP A PART OF MY BRAIN COOL JUST TO HANDLE WHERE THE FINGERS HAVE TO GO. IT’S ONE OF THE MOST UNNATURAL RIFFS TO PLAY THAT YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE!”

BRIAN MAY IS FEELING GOOD.

“A little tired,” he smiles, “but very happy.” On a cold winter afternoon, the legendary guitarist is talking to Total Guitar from his home in Surrey, a few days after the North American leg of Queen + Adam Lambert’s Rhapsody tour ended with another sold-out date at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.

“Everyone in the States has been saying that this show is the best we’ve ever done with Adam,” he says. “So it’s a great result. Wonderful!”

Certainly, the Rhapsody tour – which reaches Japan this month – is a huge production with spectacular state-of-the-art visual effects. “I’ve always loved to make a show a real event,” Brian says.

But it’s the music, of course, that continues to draw huge audiences for this tour across the globe – all of those great songs that Queen recorded with Freddie Mercury from the early ’70s until the singer’s death on November 24, 1991.

In a lengthy conversation with TG, Brian discusses the creation – and his role specifically – in many of the biggest hit songs and landmark tracks in Queen’s career. Ten of these songs featured in the setlist from that recent show in LA: Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Love Of My Life, We Are The Champions, Don’t Stop Me Now, We Will Rock You, Another One Bites The Dust, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Under Pressure and A Kind Of Magic.