Brian May has lifted the lid on the wild time he had while touring with hellraising band Guns 'N' Roses in the early 1990s. The legendary Queen guitarist was on the road with his own Brian May band following the death of the band's frontman Freddie Mercury at the age of 45 in 1991. They were the opening act for the Sweet Child O' Mine hitmakers as part of the first leg of the Back to the Light North American tour in 1993.

Reflecting on his rock and roll tour, the 77-year-old confessed: "It was a great time and highly dangerous. You never knew what was going to happen. If Guns were going to get on the stage or not or if Axl [Rose] would suddenly decide that he couldn’t do it that particular day." 

"Guns 'N' Roses have a history of show cancellations, late arrivals and even walking off stage during shows, and in the 1990s their reputation was particularly bad, especially that of singer Axl Rose.

"Once they did hit the stage, it was like an earthquake. They were amazing, a great live band – and they were very kind to me," he recollected. "Axl was a fan of Queen and very influenced by what we did. There was no Freddie anymore and I was singing and playing my own guitar at the same time – which is tough.

"It was a strange feeling, because they were playing these huge shows that Queen would have been playing. I remember a huge stadium in Turkey, where I thought, 'wouldn’t it be great if Queen was here' – but of course we never will be."

Speaking further about his days on tour with the band, he told The Guardian in 2023: "I was at peace with it, but then a few years later, there we were out playing huge, wonderful, packed venues again." 

At the time of Freddie Mercury's death, Queen had been together for 21 years and at the age of 44, Brian has admitted he was facing up to the possibility that his career was over. But despite his reservations in the aftermath of Freddie's death, Queen celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2023.

They collaborated with Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rogers from 2004 until 2009. Since 2011 they have worked with US singer Adam Lambert and Brian is back to playing the sold out arenas and stadiums of old.