Brian May Shares His Favorite Queen Concert Memory With Eddie Van Halen

Brian May has shared a fond memory with the late Eddie Van Halen during a Queen concert.

In an interview with Classic Rock, May admitted:

“I regret terribly that I didn’t keep in touch more with Ed Van Halen.”

Then he recalled his favorite moment with the legendary guitarist:

“I have a lot of favorite memories, but I do remember one time him coming to see [Queen] play.

“We went back to the hotel afterwards. He’d brought a bottle of his favorite drink with him, which I think was Southern Comfort. Anyway, he’s knocking it back, and so I started knocking it back, and I completely lost it. The next thing I remember I was on the floor in the bathroom, having fallen down and cracked my head on the washbasin. I don’t even remember going into the bathroom. It’s one of the few times in my life where I’ve gotten out of control.”

The two rockers first met backstage in Munich early in Van Halen’s career as their respective bands opened for Black Sabbath. The duo bonded over their mutual love for guitars and later swapped two of their custom-made instruments during the making of May’s 1983 Star Fleet Project. May said with a laugh in a 2020 interview with Guitar World:

“I sounded like me on his guitar and he sounded like him on my guitar.”

May also revealed in the UCR interview:

“I don’t like to call him Eddie. He always used to say, ‘I don’t like this ‘Eddie Van Halen’ thing! I’m Edward!'”

Last year, the Queen guitarist reissued his 1992 solo debut Back to the Light. Now, May is set to be on Queen’s Rhapsody Tour this summer, which starts Friday in Glasgow.