“I bumped into one of Queen’s techs. He said, ‘Steve, come down to the studio – the lads would love to see you’”: How Steve Howe ended up playing on a Queen track

Aside from their famous collaboration with David Bowie, Queen were a pretty closed shop when it came to recording with guest stars, especially guitarists. Yet prog rock hero Steve Howe bucked that trend in the early 1990s, contributing to a collaboration that has gone under the radar in the band’s folklore.

Howe, of Yes and Asia fame, has had a storied career outside of his band work. He was a guitarist for hire in the '60s, playing on a multitude of EMI recordings, and he and bandmate Rick Wakeman later played on Lou Reed's self-titled record in 1972.

But, discussing his guest spots with Prog, it's his spontaneous contributions to Queen's Innuendo that stand out.

“I was in a restaurant in Montreux and bumped into one of Queen’s techs,” he explains. “He said, ‘Steve, come down to the studio – the lads would love to see you.’”

The band rolled the red carpet out for Howe, and it sounds like they had a guest spot in mind before he arrived at the band-owned Mountain Studios. It wasn't Howe's first trip to the studios, either. He'd recorded Going for the One with Yes there in the late 70s. David Bowie, AC/DC, and Iggy Pop have also recorded there.

“When I got down there, they’d set up the studio for me,” he reveals. “They played me the whole album, and it was stunning, and they said, ‘How about playing on Innuendo? Play like [Spanish flamenco guitarist] Paco De Lucía; just run around and go nuts.’ So I did!”

The song, another slice of proto-prog pomp from the British rock giants, was born out of a jam session involving Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon in 1989. Mercury was said to be upstairs at the time, and latched onto the song's Kashmir-like groove to turn it into a song. Howe's playing provided the finishing touch, and the song later topped the UK charts.

Speaking to the Official International Queen Fan Club magazine in 2021, Howe shed more light on the session and the surprise instrument he used to record.

“Brian had three Gibson Chet Atkins guitars. [They're] brilliant inventions as they sound so much like classical guitar,” he says. “I played all three of Brian’s and liked one a bit more than the other two, so that’s what I played on the record.”

He also reveals that the solo was completely improvised, ultimately spliced together from three separate takes.

“Spontaneity and improvisation can very much be the spirit of music itself,” he says. “I had no time with Innuendo to be concerned about what to do, and that can sometimes be easier than being premeditated. Wonderful things can happen that way, and that’s how it turned out on Innuendo.”

Meanwhile, Brian May has revealed how influential Rory Gallagher was in helping him find his sound, and discussed the time Jimi Hendrix schooled him in how to use a Marshall amp.