Queen guitarist Sir Brian May has revealed he has suffered a stroke that left him unable to use his arm.
The legendary musician, 77, made the announcement in a video shared on his personal website earlier today.
However, Sir Brian – who looked animated and well in the video blog despite the medical scare – he said he can still play guitar following what he called his ‘little health hiccup’.
‘I’m here to bring you some good news – the good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,’ he said, twiddling his fingers for emphasis.
‘I say this because it was in some doubt because that little health hiccup that I mentioned happened about a week ago and what they called it was a minor stroke.’
Sir Brian May has revealed he suffered a stroke last week that left him unable to use his left arm
May is the guitarist in legendary rock band Queen (pictured: John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor Queen in 1970)
Sir Brian revealed he had suffered a ‘minor stroke’ – but he has reassured fans he can still play guitar, twiddling his fingers for emphasis in the clip
Sir Brian revealed the incident left him temporarily unable to use his left arm – but that he had a ‘very exciting’ emergency ambulance journey to Frimley Hospital in Surrey.
He has praised staff there for giving him the ‘most fantastic care’.
‘I didn’t want to say anything at the time because I didn’t want anything surrounding, you know. I really don’t want sympathy,’ he added.
‘Please don’t do that because it’ll clutter up my inbox and I hate that.’
But the animal rights activist, who has campaigned against the culling of badgers to prevent the spread of bovine tuberculosis, says he is currently ‘grounded’ as a result.
‘The good news is I’m okay. Just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing. I’m grounded.
‘I’m not allowed to go out – well, I’m not allowed to drive, not allowed to get on a plane, not allowed to raise the heart rate too high… but I’m good.’
The rocker had been seen in public just days before the scare, appearing on TV to promote his BBC documentary on badger tuberculosis.
This is not the first health scare the glam rock guitarist has suffered, having survived a heart attack in 2020.
He had been recuperating from a torn muscle and trapped nerve as a result of a gardening injury when he experienced a sudden onset of chest pains.
Sharing a video on social media recounting the experience, he said: ‘I was shocked, I thought I was a healthy guy. Everyone says I’ve got a great blood pressure and I keep fit, I bike, good diet.
‘I had – in the middle of the whole saga of the painful backside – I had a small heart attack. I say small, it’s not something that did me any harm. It was about 40 minutes of pain in the chest and tightness. It’s that feeling in the arms and sweating.
‘And you kind of know, you’ve heard things and you think “this is a heart attack”. To cut a long story short, my wonderful doctor drove me to the hospital himself and I had an angiogram (an X-ray used to examine blood vessels).’
May 2020, Brian opened up about his ordeal in which he was rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack
Recovering: The Queen guitarist was recovering from a ripped muscle and trapped nerve as a result of a gardening injury, when he suffered a heart attack amid his recovery
Sir Brian was able to see the lighter side of the ordeal – captioning a video on the topic ‘Sheer Heart Attack after one of Queen’s best-known albums
Brian went on to reveal that doctors discovered he had three arteries congested and he was in danger of blocking the supply of blood to his heart.
Doctors suggested that he undergo open heart surgery, but Brian opted for the alternative which was to have three stents put inside his heart.
He still managed to see the bright side, captioning the video: ‘Hmm… Sheer Heart Attack eh?’, after one of the band’s best known albums.
Sir Brian courted controversy last month after filming a BBC documentary, Brian May: The Badgers, The Farmers and Me, in which he blasted the ongoing badger cull, which has killed tens of thousands of the creatures.
It inflamed a BBC bias row amid claims that commissioning the film was ‘incompatible’ with the broadcaster’s impartiality rules.
After the documentary aired, Labour announced that it would end the badger cull within five years and set about vaccinating the animals against bovine TB.
This is a breaking story, more to follow.