Brian May Shares Inspiration Behind Classic ‘We Will Rock You’

He Was “Looking For Connection”

In the latest episode of Queen the Greatest, guitarist Brian May recalled how he came up with the anthemic “We Will Rock You”. It’s the song that allowed them to really connect with their audience and when each time they played it, the crowd simply went wild.

“Bingley Hall. We played this great hall in the Midlands and it was heaving,” May said. “Y’know those gigs that you love: it’s all sweaty and hot, the atmosphere’s great. Everybody’s jumping up and down, making a noise. And what they were doing was singing along.”

“In those days, it was really new I have to tell you. You just didn’t go to concerts where people sang to rock bands,” he continued. “But on this particular occasion, they didn’t stop. And when we went off stage they sang You’ll Never Walk Alone to us.”

Then he went to sleep that night thinking, “What could an audience do? What could you ask them to do?”

And that was when he realized, “They’re all crammed in there, they can’t do much. But they can stamp their feet, they can clap their hands, and they can sing.”

The 73-year old rocker admitted that he didn’t “really know where it came from but I was looking for simplicity and I was looking for connection.”

“It just kind of came to me that we were all part of this scenario where we’re all young, and full of enthusiasm, we think we can change the world, and we get out there…we will rock you!,” he explained. “We Will Rock You means we will change the world, and we feel like we can do it when we’re young.”

We Will Rock You was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009. It also sold over four million copies in the US alone.