SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2026
The reports of Queen’s touring death were greatly exaggerated — and this time it’s the guitar legend himself saying so. Brian May says he was misquoted when outlets around the world declared, after his Oct. 2 interview with The Times, that Queen will never tour again. On Oct. 6, he took to Instagram to correct the record, and a day later his official site published the same message under the plain-spoken title “Correcting a misinterpretation.”
Here’s what actually happened. Speaking to The Times over the first weekend of October, the 79-year-old Queen guitarist said he had personally decided, about 18 months ago, that he didn’t want to tour again — a decision rooted in one specific, painful moment. While the band was in the United States, a close family friend died, and May assumed he could nip home for a few days and rejoin the tour. His tour manager looked him in the eyes and told him, “You know you can’t do that.” That, May told The Times, was the trade-off: “I love to play, I love to travel, but the trade-off is sacrificing your freedom,” he said, adding that between his wife, his grandchildren and “a lot of astrophysics” he still wants to do, he was thinking “maybe 50 years is enough.”
It’s easy to see how that became “Brian May says Queen won’t tour again” in headlines at outlets like People and Rolling Stone. But May insists that’s not what he said — that was his personal decision, not a band edict. Posting a screenshot of Rolling Stone’s headline on Oct. 6, he wrote: “This is a misinterpretation of what I actually said. I have actually never said Queen won’t ever tour again. I could never say never.”
May’s clarification went further than a denial. He stressed that the engine hasn’t stopped: “I simply made a personal decision last year to take a break from touring. I’ve been making lots of music, and Roger and I are constantly working together on Queen projects behind the scenes,” he wrote, signing off with “I don’t know what the future holds. I’m ever open to new adventures!”
That last part tracks with what his bandmate has been saying. This past July, Queen drummer Roger Taylor was asked on BBC Radio 2’s “The Rock Show With Shaun Keaveny” whether the band might return to the stage, and per Blabbermouth he said it largely comes down to how May feels about it — before adding, “Never say never.” Taylor has also told Rolling Stone that the band has no plans for a farewell tour: “I don’t think we’re done.” And Adam Lambert, who has fronted the Queen + Adam Lambert touring lineup since 2012, told Smooth Radio in June that “there’s nothing on the books with Queen” but that “we’ve never had the conversation saying we’re done” — adding, in his own words, that if the call comes he’d love to do it.
The Sphere idea that’s still on the cards
The Times interview wasn’t all farewell talk — buried in it was the most interesting thing May said about Queen’s future. He told the paper the band wants to do “something fairly revolutionary” with their music in large spaces — not the ABBA Voyage avatar route, but something along those lines. A visit to the Sphere in Las Vegas last year lit the fuse: May said his juices started flowing and he sketched out an entire Queen show for the venue.
There’s a catch, though, and it’s pure Brian May: he told The Times that “an immersive experience is still on the cards,” but that at present such a show can’t be built without AI, “and I have serious misgivings about that.” His objection is sweeping — he called data centers “a massive evil” that has to be fought. So the man who wants to build a future-conquering Queen experience also finds the technology required for it morally suspect. That tension is going to be worth watching, because if anyone can brute-force a solution to “immersive show without AI,” it’s the astrophysicist with a homemade guitar.
The long, strange trip to this moment
Some context matters here. Queen + Adam Lambert haven’t played a live show since the Rhapsody tour wrapped at the Tokyo Dome in February 2024. Later that year, May revealed he had suffered a minor stroke that temporarily cost him the use of his left arm — the arm he plays with. He has since recovered enough to play again. It was also reported by Blabbermouth that May endured a “small” heart attack a few years earlier, discovering three congested arteries and receiving three stents. Add May’s wife, actress Anita Dobson, recently saying the band won’t do large-scale tours because the members are “getting old,” and it’s understandable that “maybe 50 years is enough” read like a farewell.
But “understandable” and “accurate” are different things, and May clearly felt the difference. What he described to The Times was a personal decision about the touring life — the endless machine, the inability to fly home when it matters — not a decree that Queen is done. And his track record says to take the clarification seriously: this is the same guy who, at 79, recovered from a stroke to keep playing, keeps releasing music, and keeps sketching immersive arena concepts after a single trip to the Sphere.
For Queen fans, the meaningful sentence of the whole week might be the one from July: Taylor saying it comes down to how May feels. And now May has told us how he feels — he’s making music, he’s working with Roger on Queen projects behind the scenes, and he’d “never say never” about touring. That’s not a farewell. That’s an open door. (For more on the band’s legacy on screen, see our report on the restored Budapest concert hitting cinemas and IMAX.)
May’s Oct. 2 Times interview was read as Queen retiring from touring; he clarified Oct. 6 on Instagram and Oct. 7 on brianmay.com. A “fairly revolutionary” Sphere-style immersive show, held up by May’s objections to AI and data centers.
