Brian May Has Been There Before : The Former Queen Star Now Opens for a Band He Helped Inspire--Guns N’ Roses

Brian May is back in America, performing before sold-out audiences of cheering fans.

But this time, instead of headlining rock shows with Queen, as he did in the ‘70s, the guitarist is here as the opening act for a band he helped inspire--Guns N’ Roses.

“It’s amazing coming to all these places we visited as Queen. It’s very emotional,” May said during a recent phone interview from Austin, Tex. “I’m very happy. I feel very privileged, really.”

Although his work on “Bohemian Rhapsody” was in the Top 10 last year and his music with Queen is played nightly as anthems in sports arenas, the inaugural tour for the Brian May Band reminds him how long it has been since he performed in the United States--11 years.

“It’s an incredible mixture of emotions that I feel. There’s bound to be part of me that looks at Guns N’ Roses and thinks, ‘That’s exactly how Queen was.’ (But) I can’t walk out there now and get all this instant empathy and recognition. It’s a question of starting again, really. Almost.

“But there’s also part of me which is very happy that I’m moving on into this new life,” adds May, who headlines his own show at the Palace on April 6. “I kind of feel that Queen was a preparation for this. I feel very positive about it.”

His new debut album, “Back to the Light” on Hollywood Records, is gaining many of the fans from last year’s Queen revival, with “Driven by You” a fast-rising track on album-rock stations nationally.

The album took five years to complete. It was begun back in the days when May was still busy with Queen, before the 1991 death from AIDS of lead singer Freddie Mercury.

“In the beginning, it was part time, because at the time Queen was incredibly busy,” he said. “It was very time-consuming just being in Queen.

“It also took a long time because I was trying to put my life back together. I really had a very bad spot personally because of various things that happened five years ago,” he said, describing the new album as “kind of therapy.”

May, 45, said what happened to him is not particularly unusual, but he felt he had to write about it anyway. “You gotta tell people that you can come out the other side.

“My father died, which I found pretty hard to deal with,” he said. “Then my family split up. I had to leave my wife and kids, which was just unthinkable for me.”

And as his personal life was shattering, so was his professional career in one of rock’s most successful bands.

“The group was something that was pretty much like a family, especially in the touring part,” May said. “And when Freddie announced to us privately that he didn’t want to tour anymore, that was pretty much of a major blow as well.”

In that private announcement, in 1986, following the band’s last tour in Europe, Mercury did not say why he wanted to retire from the road.

“We had a suspicion that something was wrong, although we didn’t know what,” May said. A few months before his death, Mercury told them he had AIDS, “but we were already 99% sure by that time. Still, he had incredible strength; he just never wavered. He never asked for any sympathy. He was incredibly positive.”

And though the band stopped touring, the recording continued. “We did some great stuff,” he said. “I’m very proud of particularly the last album.”

But the demise of Queen “took away my remaining self-image. I didn’t know who I was for quite a long time.”

Part of May’s role in coming back to the United States this year is presenting a taste of Queen’s music live.

“I do think there is a certain amount of demand. And I’d like to give people a little of what they’d like to hear. But I don’t want it to get too much seated in the past. I don’t want this to be a rehash of a Queen show. It’s supposed to be different. It’s supposed to be me.”