As a low-key player’s player, Jo Burt has provided bass for The Troggs, Freddie Mercury, Brian Setzer and Black Sabbath – but he doesn’t single out his short touring stint with Tony Iommi’s band as a career highlight.

“Playing at Wembley Stadium with my own band, Sector 27, would be one,” he tells Bass Player. “And possibly opening for The Police at Madison Square Garden might be another.” When it comes to recording, he adds, “working with Freddie is a high point.”

He did learn an important lesson from Sabbath, though – the importance of retaining freedom. “I have my own band, which has been up and running for a few years. It’s allowed me to get back to writing, as in the early years with Sector 27.”

He adds: “Being in control has been of huge importance in my life. In the Black Sabbath time I had none. I’m also happy to be free of the industry, which I now realize is and always has been corrupt. No regrets!”

When you played with The Troggs, how did you nail their classic garage rock tone?

“The Troggs were my first pro band. In 1978, when we played New York City, the Ramones and the New York Dolls were in the audience along with Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, Deborah Harry and Andy Warhol. Reg Presley was treated like the godfather of punk, and the band had taken on the mantle.

“I’d recently bought a silver Music Man StingRay bass. It had a great maple neck which felt like a Fender. I was lucky to have an Ampeg SVT supplied by the club, which I set to my usual tone – slight mid-cut with slight bass and treble boost.

“What I hadn’t reckoned on was the EQ on the Music Man bass, which was actually more clanky than I expected. If you listen to The Troggs Live at Max’s, the bass sound is not really my thing – but boy, does it push Ronnie Bond and the band along!

“I didn’t keep the Music Man; I couldn’t get on with all that EQ and choices. I’m back to a fretted Precision as a companion to my lovely ‘battered blonde’ fretless.”

You played bass on Freddie Mercury’s Mr. Bad Guy album. What led to that?

“Sector 27 was being looked after by Elton John’s manager, John Reid, and we did extensive touring as the opening act for Elton. John had also managed Queen, and the contact with Freddie remained.

“I had also worked with Roger Taylor and Rick Parfitt on a single for Jimmy Nail, so I was already in the family of musicians around Freddie. On one of those clubbing nights out that used to happen, Freddie asked me to come to Munich.”

Did you err toward John Deacon’s bass style?

“Freddie told me to be free-thinking and not to worry about trying to be John. My style was similar anyway – ‘less is more’ has always been a mantra. I guess it was old-fashioned in the days when bass guitars were getting attention from manufacturers who were starting to offer fancy, ever more sophisticated basses.”

What were Freddie’s expectations of you as a bassist?

“On so many recording sessions for major artists, those artists are never actually there. If they are, they tend to instruct from the control room via microphone. But Freddie was a remarkable musician and totally on it in the studio.

“In the control room, or even sitting in the recording room with me, he was throwing ideas back and forth, encouraging me to experiment. He was careful to keep me at ease while being this whirlwind of ideas. Like Michael Jackson, he was able to sing the parts he wanted played.

“Freddie liked to work fast. He used to say, ‘If it’s not brilliant by the third take, move on – maybe come back tomorrow.’ On his his vocal takes that rule was never needed. Once he was prepared, his tracks were all first takes.”

You played fretless on Mr. Bad Guy. What led to that?

“Freddie had specifically asked. He really wanted to get away from all things Queen, although he was has happy enough when Brian and Roger dropped by and even made suggestions.

“Aside from some light compression applied from the control desk, it was just me and my lovely battered fretless bass plugged in direct.”

How did you hook up with Jason Bonham in Virginia Wolf?

“I got a call one day from Roger, saying he was producing this great band but they needed beefing up. He had secured Jason to play drums, and wanted me on bass. I did kind of jump at the idea! That afternoon Jason and I were certainly beefing up those tracks at Pete Townshend’s studio.”

Was the chemistry between you and Jason immediate?

“I felt a certain responsibility for this young man bouncing around like a scared bunny, following desperately in his late father’s footsteps. Eventually, being on tour in the US with him was definitely a challenge, but a nice one.

“Jason and I locked in as a rhythm section immediately. He played and sounded like his dad. After listening to Led Zeppelin II over and over at school, I was allowed to use the influence from those tracks. It was probably the first time that I acknowledged John Paul Jones’ influence. Later on, even Robert Plant said I played like him!

“After two years, Virginia Wolf crashed and burned in the flame of inexperience and internal pettiness. It was a shame – Atlantic Records had backed the band a few quid for their attempt at domination in the USA.”

What led to you getting the call for Black Sabbath’s Eternal Idol tour?

“Phil Banfield had been Virginia Wolf’s manager. He managed Ian Gillan and he was part of a bigger set-up which included Jeff Beck and Black Sabbath. When he heard Sabbath needed a last-minute replacement for their European Eternal Idol tour, he called me.”

Was there an audition?

“There was no time for an audition! I just arrived at production rehearsals, with the huge stage, sound system and lights already in place. The sound desk was set up at a distance in the aircraft-style hangar. The only rehearsal I had was a couple of days, listening to a cassette of the show and a copy of the album.”

Were you expected to play a rig and in a style similar to Geezer Butler’s?

“The rig set was three Ampeg SVT amplifiers, each with an 8x12 cabinet. As it happens I had my own SVT set up – my amp of choice – so I was familiar with them, except there were three!

“Even so, the sound wasn’t right, and after a few run-throughs, Tony said the same thing. I’d had the first amp taken away because it was distorting like crazy; the pre-amp valves had been tweaked into overdrive. Then the penny dropped.

“We put that amp back in line and the distorted sound gave my bass loads of sustain, which made Tony smile. It took some getting used to – the bass was like an animal in my hands. It was difficult to stop it resonating. My trouser legs were flapping with the sound pressure from the three big cabs!

“As a 20-something, I was more Led Zep than Sabbath. I knew the more well-known Sabbath songs, but I did struggle with identifying one or two of the titles. I was certainly not able to play like Geezer when he would virtually play a bass solo over the instrumental parts; there just wasn’t the time to learn them accurately.

“I always felt I was playing an approximation when the band launched into some of those riffs in faster time changes.”

Can you pinpoint how your style specifically differed from Geezer’s?

“My style was more melodic. But you have to remember that I followed a long list of bass players, and it was really only the earlier songs that had his style. Bob Daisley played on the Eternal Idol album.

“War Pigs was a classic which I enjoyed playing, although the solo sections were always a challenge. Glory Ride was an easy rocker. I really liked the tracks we played from the Eternal Idol album as well as the classics. It feels like a privilege to have played Iron Man.”

Was it a challenge being on the road with Sabbath during those lean ’80s years?

“Travelling was absolutely fine. Me and drummer Terry Chimes had met when he was with The Clash and I was with Tom Robinson. Tony Martin was also a newbie, so I guess there was some nervous energy on the tour bus.

“Jeff Nicholls was a funny guy and very friendly. After years of playing offstage, he had no ego; he was a very present friend to me while travelling. Tony had that classic Brummie sense of humor, which matched with Jeff, so all in all it was pretty comfortable – with four-star hotels included.

“It only felt lean when tour manager Richard Cole dragged me out of the bus, still in my sleeping bag, and told me, ‘Hurry up! We’re all going home.’”

Did he give an explanation?

“I’m not sure why the tour ended so abruptly. All the gear was impounded by the sound and light company, who hadn’t been paid. I never got a bunch of my gear returned, although I did eventually get my fretless back. People don’t get sacked from Sabbath; they just don’t get spoken to again!”

You’ve also worked with Brian Setzer.

“I knew him through his time in England with the Stray Cats, when we often hung out. I met him again in the Rainbow in LA and his first comment was, ‘My bass player’s got an attitude. Do you want the gig?’

“I had a Precision-style Peavey bass stored at a friend’s house. I hadn’t played it very much, but it meant I was able to get straight to rehearsal the next day. Even that bass felt a little over-spec for the hillbilly rock ’n’ roll we playing. I felt I should have had a semi, like an old Epiphone Rivoli bass.

“Brian was a great guy and a truly talented guitar player. He also introduced me to the best Mexican restaurant in Hollywood, which I still visit when I can!”

What are you up to now?

“The Jo Burt Experience have released four albums – the most recent one is Anglicana. We’ve done four tours of British Columbia and Calgary. France and Belgium have also been happy hunting grounds. It’s all done as a cottage industry.

“Most recently, I released a superb live album entitled Jo Burt The Live Experience in limited-edition vinyl. It’s due to be cut at Abbey Road in for a spring 2026 release.”

• Anglicana is out now.

Nuno Bettencourt has looked back on Extreme’s heartfelt act of rebellion during 1992’s Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium – and he has no regrets.

For the event, Bettencourt says the performing artists – which included Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Def Leppard – were strictly prohibited from playing Queen material during their rapid-fire sets. But Bettencourt had other ideas.

Taking place on April 20, 1992, in front of 72,000 fans – and countless more watching at home – the show was organized in the wake of Mercury's passing to raise awareness of AIDS, the disease that took the singer's life.

After Metallica delivered a rousing opening salvo – playing Enter Sandman, Sad But True, and Nothing Else Matters – Brian May introduced Extreme, deeply begrudging what was about to happen.

“Not only was it one of the greatest concerts of my life to be a part of,” Bettencourt wrote on Instagram, “but when Brian May walked out to introduce us and said, ‘More than any other group on the planet, this next band knew what Freddie and Queen were all about,’ normally I’d take the humble approach, but that statement was 1000% spot on.

“On that day, we wanted to make sure that not only true Queen fans in that stadium and watching around the world knew what Freddie meant to us – but more importantly, that Freddie, watching down from the heavens, one of the greatest composers and rock and roll singers of all time, knew what he meant to us.”

Shunning their own material, the band launched into a Queen medley that included mega-hits Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Alive, and Stone Cold Crazy, capped off with Bettencourt and vocalist Gary Cherone’s intimate rendition of More Than Words.

Most of the songs they played were later performed again by Queen with guest vocalists including James Hetfield, Roger Daltrey, and Seal. But Extreme’s tribute would have its consequences.

“Yes, we got into a lot of trouble for performing all Queen music instead of Extreme songs, as no artist was allowed to perform Queen till the all-star jam,” Bettencourt continues. “But it was fucking worth it because we needed to let everyone know how much impact Freddie had on us and celebrate the music of Queen that shaped and changed our lives.

“The only way to do that was to risk performing a Queen medley for the first time. Not very smart in front of Queen, Bowie, Elton [John], Guns [N’ Roses], Metallica, and the immense talent that was there side-stage. But we knew that would be the only way to rock the house that Queen built: Wembley Stadium.

“Having survived it, I can tell you that Freddie was in that building, ’cause the shivers and lightning shooting right through me during every second of that set was something, till this day, I’ve never felt again.”

“Thank you to all the Queen fans at Wembley that day for allowing us to entertain you. It was an honor, a privilege. A gift we’ll cherish forever.”

Speaking about the show with Kylie Olsson in 2021, Bettencourt revealed that Brian May had begged the band not to go off-piste.

“We wanted to tell Brian, and when we told him, it was the first and last time I've ever argued with him. He was upset that we weren't doing us, that we were doing Queen. He was like, 'I want you guys to celebrate all these bands here.' He was so adamant about us not doing it, 'Please do what you guys do' – we weren't even doing More Than Words [at the time].

“He finally said, 'Look, this is your slot, you guys do what you want to do.' He wasn't very happy with it, but he gave us the blessing, and we went up, and we don't regret it, it was amazing, it was what those fans wanted to hear, I believe.”

In related news, May recently revealed the Freddie Mercury tribute that lives in his very first Gibson signature guitar, and made one of his first public appearances since he suffered a stroke last year when he joined Benson Boone for a run-through of Bohemian Rhapsody at Coachella.

Brian May unveiled his rather luxurious Gibson SJ-200 12-string acoustic signature guitar last month, and the instrument came fitted with a subtle, wholesome tribute to the late Freddie Mercury that you might have missed.

The Queen guitarist was, in a surprise move, unveiled as a Gibson signature artist last year as he helped cut the ribbon of the Gibson Garage store in London alongside Jimmy Page and Tony Iommi.

The partnership has led to talk of a Gibson-made Red Special, which May hopes will happen, but in the meantime, the 12-string represents his first creative venture with the historic firm.

“The 12-string I was accustomed to wasn’t performing,” May previously recalled of his signature's origin story. “Gibson kindly said, ‘We’ll make you something special.’”

While the SJ-200 stands out by reversing the order of the octave and regular acoustic guitar strings to suit May's strumming style, it also features a subtle but classy nod to Freddie Mercury, the iconic frontman with whom he and Queen took over the world.

Discussing the guitar in an extended video during which he muses on his love for both art and astronomy, May revealed how his Mercury tribute comes via his namesake planet, which has been etched onto its beautiful pickguard art.

“I believe that the best science is done artistically, and the best art is done with a knowledge of the universe. Look at the science of this guitar,” he purrs. “Look how much technology and craftsmanship has gone into this.

“They were able to put the universe here in some figurative way, and look what's right here in the middle: The planet Mercury. That's a little nod to a friend of mine.

“Freddie's always with me,” he continues, “because he was like a brother. The relationships in Queen lasted longer than any of our marriages. It was a big, big thing. We still carry Queen around with us, even though we don't have Freddie. But I have a Mercury on the guitar now, which makes me very happy.”

Since Mercury's passing, May has performed Love of My Life solo (with the help of old footage of the vocalist) with a 12-string guitar as a tribute to the singer, and so it's fitting that his new guitar will carry his spirit into the band's future live performances.

“Love of my Life was written by Freddie on a piano,” he says of the song. “I played harp on it, and in the intro a Japanese Koto.

“We wanted to play it live on stage. I picked up a 12-string and found that I could make it sing with Freddie quite easily, but probably even more importantly than that, it became a staple feature of our set. We would always quit the bombast, come down very small, and just Freddie and I would play together. It was always a lovely feeling.

“When we lost Freddie, I wanted to play Love of my Life just the way we used to, so it became an audience thing where they all sing it and I hardly need to sing it at all. It just seemed right to involve Freddie.”

The acoustic guitar's release comes after May admitted he had originally wanted a rhythm guitarist in Queen and how Jimi Hendrix put an abrupt end to his experiments with Marshall amps. His career has been underpinned by his love of Vox AC30 amps, a gear recommendation he got from none other than Rory Gallagher.

While Queen would go on to become one of history's most enduring live powerhouses (who can forget their Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium?), Brian May recently revealed that he initially felt insecure about being the only guitarist in the band, and even campaigned for the inclusion of a rhythm guitarist in the band’s early days.

“There’s videos from the early days and I think we were pretty good,” he tells Guitarist. “Very early on, we arrived at this view that being a live act was not the same as the studio. Actually, it was simpler because there’s only four of us on stage and no overdubs.

“It took me a long time to feel confident about being the only guitar on stage. I always felt like I needed a rhythm guitar. But, gradually, I got into this habit of playing lead and rhythm at the same time – and I realized that nobody noticed the lack of it. So we had enough. You could fashion that live performance to make people feel they’d heard an orchestra.”

May's wish did come true in the mid-'80s, when Queen added Spike Edney to their touring lineup for the European leg of 1984's The Works tour.

While primarily a keyboardist, Edney contributed rhythm guitar to various tracks and continued playing with Queen at almost every show until the band stopped touring in 1986.

He later resumed his role, even joining May in The Brian May Band and returning as keyboardist for the Queen + Adam Lambert tours. In fact, he can be spotted supporting May on rhythm guitar during Hammer to Fall in Queen's Live at Wembley Stadium and Hungarian Rhapsody concert films.

Another rhythm guitarist May had the pleasure of adding to his lineup? Jamie Moses – who became Queen’s second guitarist from 1998 through 2009, as well as playing in The Brian May Band.

Speaking to Guitar World about how Edney played a role in him managing to clinch the highly coveted role, Moses said, “I met him at the Freddie Mercury tribute at Wembley while I was playing with Bob Geldof. My old mate, Spike Edney – who still plays keyboards with Queen – said, ‘Come on, we’ll introduce you to Brian…’ Within six months, he put the Brian May Band together; Spike called me up and I got the gig.”

And last but not least, Freddie Mercury himself did occasionally experiment with guitar. “He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox – all downstrokes,” relayed May in a 2019 Guitar World interview. “He wrote the riff for Ogre Battle [from 1974’s Queen II].

“I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving! He played the rhythm on Crazy Little Thing Called Love [1979]. I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good!”

For more from May, plus new interviews with Eric Johnson and Rosanne Cash, pick up issue 521 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

Queen I, the legendary band's 1973 debut, presented a band full of ambition and genre-hopping ideas, offering a sneak peek into what would become a legendary career.

Fast-forward to 2024, and Queen has now unveiled a reworked version of the album that started it all, in the form of an opulent six-CD, one-LP deluxe box set – including alternative takes, live recordings, demos, and revamped guitar parts.

“Every instrument has been re-examined from the bottom up,” Brian May tells MOJO. “The guitars were originally recorded very dry, so we’ve remedied that. I remember my dad saying, ‘There’s no ambience, Brian. I don’t feel like I’m in the room with you playing next to me.’

“But we weren’t in a position to lay down the law, and we felt that if we stepped out of line we would lose the opportunity altogether.”

May goes on to say that while producer Roy Thomas Baker did a great job given the circumstances, he found himself in a difficult position, wedged between the “young hopefuls” and a “management company [Trident Audio Productions] who saw us as a can of beans.”

The guitarist clarifies that he isn’t saying the original version was bad; rather, “it just wasn’t what we dreamed of.” He reveals that both Freddie Mercury and John Deacon were quite unhappy with some parts and were “conscious” of an important piece of their past that “seemed like it couldn’t be fixed.”

The reworked version doesn't take away the magic of the original, but as May stresses, it amplifies it.

“All the performances are exactly as they originally appeared in 1973, but every instrument has been revisited to produce the ‘live’ ambient sounds we would have liked to use originally,” he writes on his official website. “The result is ‘Queen’ as it would have sounded with today’s knowledge and technology – a first.”

In other Brian May news, the Queen guitarist recently endorsed The Last Dinner Party's Emily Roberts, referring to the band as “the new British Rock Royalty”.

Queen I is now available from the official Queen store.

Sotheby's has announced that it will auction off a large number of Freddie Mercury's personal items later this year. 

The significant collection of stage and personal outfits, music memorabilia, art and more has sat largely – in the 30 years since the Queen frontman's untimely death in 1991 – undisturbed and well-looked-after at Mercury's one-time home in London. Now though, many of Mercury's valuables are – with the blessing and oversight of his close friend and confidant, Mary Austin – going up for sale.

Among those items is a 1975 Martin D-35 acoustic guitar, which – according to Sotheby's – was likely the six-string that Mercury used to write and record Queen's first US chart-topper, Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

Though most well-known, instrumentally, as a pianist, Mercury was also very a capable guitarist. 

"He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox – all downstrokes," Queen electric guitar hero Brian May told Guitar World in a 2019 interview. "He wrote the riff for Ogre Battle [from 1974’s Queen II]. I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving! He had a frenetic energy on the guitar, which came across very well in that song.

"He [also] played the rhythm on Crazy Little Thing Called Love," May continued. "I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good."

The Martin – which comes with its original case – is thus far the most prominent guitar to crop up in the auction, though Sotheby's is reportedly still cataloging the full contents of Mercury's collection. Its estimated value is £30,000–50,000 (around $37,000 to $62,000).

The Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own collection will tour the world on exhibition this summer, before hitting the auction block – physically and online – in September.

For more info on the auction and exhibition itinerary, visit Sotheby's.

Incidentally, Sotheby's was also the auction house that – earlier this month – organized the sale of Eddie Van Halen's custom-built Hot for Teacher Kramer. Valued at between two and three million dollars, the guitar eventually sold for an astonishing $3,932,000, making it one of the most expensive guitars sold at auction. 

Since starting out in 1970s West Philadelphia, Gail Ann Dorsey has carved an eclectic and distinguished career that’s seen her emerge as one of the most proficient and in-demand bassists on the planet. Completely self-taught, Gail’s driving ambition propelled her to the UK in the summer of 1983, where she became a notable presence on the London music scene, earning her first high-profile gig as guest vocalist in the Charlie Watts Big Band.

As her professional career took shape, Gail found herself working alongside the likes of Tears for Fears, Boy George and Concrete Blonde, before making her solo debut on cult TV weekly, The Tube, accompanying herself only on bass guitar to the Bobby Womack track, ‘Stop On By’. 

In 1994, after nearly 12 years in England, Gail relocated to Woodstock in Upstate New York and the following year began her long-standing association with David Bowie. Initially recruited for Bowie’s Outside tour, a six-week union with industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails, Dorsey remained a mainstay in Bowie’s group, contributing to the Earthling, Heathen, The Next Day studio albums and featuring on 2010’s Reality Tour Live. 

With Bowie, Gail had the perfect platform to showcase her bass-playing prowess, taking established lines and making them her own. “For any track, there were certain licks or hooks that you don’t want to stray too far from, but sometimes you had to do a little bit more to stretch out. If you’re recreating a live version of an original part it’s like taking your training wheels off, because when you’re practising along with the record you don’t really notice where you’re failing. You really need to just play the basic line and hold everything together."

The 2010 double live album David Bowie: A Reality Tour, was captured during the 2003 worldwide concert tour of the same name, with Gail joined onstage by the likes of Sterling Campbell on drums, Mike Garson on keyboards and guitarist Earl Slick, to perform the pick of Bowie’s back catalogue along with tracks from the Earthling, Heathen and Reality albums.  “I cried the first time I heard it back,’ says Gail. ‘It sounded so good I just couldn’t believe it was us! The track that got me was ‘The Loneliest Guy’ – David’s singing was just unbelievable.

"It made me realise that after all these years of playing in his band I had never really heard him sing. There are so many things going through your head when you’re onstage, whether it’s listening to the drums or just keeping my part together – whatever I need to do to have a good show – my brain’s on full drive just trying to keep up! So even though I could always hear him in my monitors and I knew when the different vocal parts were coming in, because I was trying so hard to hold down my part I could never listen in the same way the audience does. I’ve always thought he was one of the greatest singers of all time. He is up there with Sinatra or any of those guys. I just think as a vocalist he is extraordinary."

Another standout track from the Reality Tour album is an exhilarating rendition of Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’, featuring Gail on bass guitar and lead vocals. "When David asked me to sing that tune I was terrified. I mean, how was I going to play this great song and sing Freddie Mercury’s part? But I was too afraid to say no. So he gave me the version with Annie Lennox from the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, which the whole world had seen! And I went back to my hotel room and started learning the bass part and then the vocal."

Using a Pocket Rockit headphone amp, Gail took the track down in tempo and worked on it one section at a time, gradually bringing the track back up to speed until it all locked in. "It’s a bit like a drum kit, where you have your hi-hat, kick and snare, and you have to link the whole pattern together," says Gail. "If you work on it slowly and then bring it up to speed, somehow it all fits together. It’s quite mechanical in a way. It was two weeks before I was ready to play it onstage, and we would practise it in soundcheck a little bit each day. Learning that song was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do."

With David Bowie’s back catalogue containing songs of every mood, style and era, Gail had to call up a diverse range of different bass sounds. "For some of the tours we’d rehearse for five or six days a week for eight to ten weeks, and we’d be in there from nine to five, so I will spend two or three hours just trying new amps and different pedals. I’m not big on bass effects but I do love to squeeze the tone so it’s nice and round and compressed. I’m not really keen on a bright bass sound either. I play with a very soft touch, hardly hitting the strings at all, because I think you get a bigger, more old-school sound that way." 

"I dig in when I have to, but a lot of times when people play hard they choke the sound. I’ve never really liked those modern basses. They’re beautifully crafted instruments but to me they’re a little too sensitive and I just don’t have the right touch. It depends on the song. Whether you play with a plectrum or not, I don’t really mind – I prefer to play with fingers but sometimes a plectrum is necessary, but I make those calls when I listen back to the original records."

Throughout her career, Gail has relied on a tried-and-tested formula of Ernie Ball Music Man basses and Ampeg amplification. "I got my first StingRay in ’84 or ’85 on the first tour I’d ever done with a band called the Thrashing Doves," says Gail. "With a StingRay I can cover just about anything."

Affectionately known as Marilyn, that same StingRay remains Gail’s favorite bass to this day and has accompanied her on tours all over the world…but why Marilyn? "I was on a train reading some magazine and there was a picture of Marilyn Monroe. She was reading a script in her trailer for the last film she ever did before she died, and she looked so perplexed, like she was never going to remember her lines; and there was just something about that picture that resonated with the way I feel when I’m trying to get something right on the bass. I could just imagine what was going through her head." 

"So I ripped the picture out of the magazine and took it to a printer’s in London and had them blow it up so I could put it underneath the clear scratchplate that I’d already got for my StingRay. That picture has been there ever since, and for every tour I do I try and have Marilyn with me."

Gail is currently touring France with Matthieu Chedid in support of his latest album Rêvalité. For more info visit gailanndorsey.com

Best of 2019: Even by most multi-taskers’ standards, Brian May puts everybody to shame. He’s not only one of most distinctive guitarists on the planet, but he also co-founded and composed songs for one of the world’s top-selling bands, Queen. As if all that weren’t enough, May somehow found a little time in his schedule to become an astrophysicist, of all things, having received his Ph.D. from London’s Imperial College in 2007.

All of which begs the question: Is there anything this guy’s crap at?

May lets out a chuckle and says, “Oh, sure. I suppose there’s some things.” After racking his brain for a second, he admits household chores aren’t his strong suit. “I’m rubbish at that stuff. Ask my wife. I’m always leaving cups of tea sitting in all of these hidden places, and they turn up months later all full of mildew. That’s my worst trait.”

Housework aside, May’s achievements continue to pile up. It’s indeed rare for any band to sustain its popularity decades after its last recorded work, but Queen are riding a wave of popularity that’s practically unheard of. Thanks in large part to the behemoth 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, now the most successful music biopic of all time (with worldwide box office receipts in excess of $1 billion — not to mention four Academy Awards), the band’s catalog has stormed back onto the charts. Shortly after the picture’s release last fall, Queen achieved a career first with not one, but two albums (the movie soundtrack and the band’s 1981 Greatest Hits collection) on the Billboard Top 10.

“I mean, who could have predicted it?” May asks rhetorically, almost sounding bewildered at the magnitude of the film’s reach. “We thought it would do well with the fans, but we didn’t imagine how fully it’s been embraced. People are going to see it five, six times. They’re singing along and crying. I met people in Asia who saw it 30 times. It’s extraordinary. We couldn’t be happier.”

Responding to critics who took issue with the movie’s reshuffling of chronological events, May says, “We weren’t making a documentary. It wasn’t supposed to be ‘This happened, and then this happened.’ This was an attempt to get inside Freddie Mercury and portray his inner-life — his drive, his passion, his fears and weaknesses. Also, we wanted to portray his relationship with us as a family, which was pretty much a part of what made him tick.” He pauses, then adds thoughtfully of the band’s late frontman, “And I think Freddie would love it, because it’s a good, honest representation of him as a person."

Bohemian Rhapsody had a long and sometimes troubled history before reaching the screen (before Rami Malek was cast in the role of Mercury, Sacha Baron Cohen was briefly attached), and for May, who along with drummer Roger Taylor served as a creative and musical consultant on the film, the process often proved difficult. “There were lots of battles we had to face,” he says. Even after the film wrapped, the guitarist had to fight execs at 20th Century Fox to be able to record his own version of the studio’s theme music that begins the picture. “They didn’t want me to do it because they thought it would open the door for lots of other things. But in the end, they let me do it, and they came through for us in every respect.”

One of May’s other roles on the film involved coaching actor Gwilym Lee, who portrays the guitarist, in the finer points of his unique style on the six-string, which even called for the actor to play with a British sixpence instead of a standard pick. Fortunately, Lee wasn’t a neophyte on the guitar, so he was already versed in the basics.

“Gwilym’s a good player, but he wanted to get into how I do stuff and observe me close-up,” May says. “We sat together with two guitars and played the songs he was going to do in the movie. He absorbed it all very rapidly. What I didn’t realize was that he was also observing all of my mannerisms and the tone of my voice. When my kids saw the first trailer of the film, they said, ‘Dad, did you overdub your voice?’ I said, ‘No, he’s an actor, and he’s absolutely nailed me!’ ”

Beyond Bohemian Rhapsody’s gargantuan box-office take, May attributes Queen’s sustained hold on the public’s consciousness to the durability of their songs. “The songs are the main pillar, but that’s a very complex area in itself,” he says. “Those songs were generated during periods of stress. We were very fortunate to have a strong combination of personalities, but I think we were always on the verge of breaking up. Oddly enough, that’s where we got our strength, because we were pulling in different directions. We had four varied talents between us.”

Queen stayed off the road for more than a decade following Mercury’s AIDS-related death in 1991, but in 2004, May and Taylor resumed touring with singer Paul Rodgers fronting a revamped version of the band (bassist John Deacon had retired). That configuration, Queen + Paul Rodgers, enjoyed a run of highly successful worldwide treks before splitting in 2009. Two years later, May and Taylor invited American Idol runner-up winner Adam Lambert to join the group, and — as Queen + Adam Lambert — they’ve gone down a smash.

This summer, the band will embark on a North American arena tour, and with Queen still basking in their Bohemian Rhapsody glow, the run just might feel like a victory lap. “I think performance is still a big part of our history,” May says. “We still go out there with Adam and do it at the top level. I don’t think anybody could have predicted that, either. What’s great is, Adam doesn’t feel like a replacement at all; in his own way, he’s an innovator on stage. He’s part of our new balance.”

Let’s go back to the beginning. In 1963, you were obviously a serious student in school, but at the same time you wanted to play guitar. Did those two pursuits conflict with each other?

They did conflict, and the policy of the school was that guitar playing was immoral and illegal — it was the work of the devil. We had to sneak guitars in and play in cycle sheds during lunchtime. We had to be rebels. All of those sorts of ways of formally learning to be a rock star didn’t exist in 1963. It was regarded by many as a big waste of time.

Your father helped you build your guitar, the Red Special. Was he was OK with the guitar taking time from your studies?

My dad’s a bit of an enigma. Yes, he did support me, and we made the guitar together, which was a wonderful bonding experience for the two of us. But when it came to me giving up my studies to go out and play guitar, he was violently against it. He was heartbroken I was considering giving up everything he thought that was going to secure my future — and everything that he felt he had made sacrifices to enable me to do. It was a very emotional thing, and we hardly spoke for about a year and a half.

If the guitar you built didn’t pan out, what would you have wound up playing?

Oh, well, we would have made it work; we wouldn’t have given up. [Laughs] We were absolutely determined, and we did a lot of experimental stuff as we went along. Having said that, it could have been much less of a success than it turned out to be, and then history would have been different. But I don’t know how because I couldn’t afford to buy a guitar for all those years. It would have been much later before I was able to buy a Fender or a Gibson or anything of that class.

You’ve played the Red Special throughout your career. Given all the technological changes that are available now, if you could go back in time, is there anything you wish you could change about it?

I wouldn’t change anything. No, it all worked out very well. [Laughs] It’s really part of my body, and everything about it is right for me. Now, how that happened is a bit of a mystery. I think some of it was intuition and good planning, but some of it was luck. One of the big unknowns was having those acoustic pockets in it. I had this idea that the guitar should feedback a certain way — not the scream-y kind of feedback that happens through pickups. I didn’t have any theory behind that; I was just lucky it worked out right.

Your style of playing is almost impossible to dissect. It’s hard to detect your influences. Who did you listen to as a kid?

There wasn’t much to listen to at that time, so kids like me would listen to everything they could lay their hands on. You wouldn’t call Django Reinhardt, Charlie Byrd or Chet Atkins rock guitar players, but they were all big influences on me. We were all Shadows fans, so Hank Marvin was a massive influence.

I just seized upon anything I could find. I didn’t know who James Burton was in those days, but he was a big influence. The way he bent strings, it sounded like a vocal. That’s what fired me up. And there was Buddy Holly, not so much for string bending, but his incisive rhythm playing was a big influence on me. And those harmonies! I started to appreciate what could be done with the vocal harmonies. Those things chill me to the bone still — “Oh, Boy!” and “Maybe Baby.” I still put them on and marvel at where they came from.

Queen also seemed to occupy their own lane. You weren’t doing the blues thing like Free, and you weren’t aggressively prog like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Were you guys trying to stay away from what everybody else was doing?

I think the real influence is from all of those things. A couple of songs in our early days were very much modeled on the way Free wrote. By that time I’d been exposed to Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, and that was life-changing. To us, Hendrix was the great god. I still can’t understand where that stuff came from. It’s like he came from another planet.

I mentioned harmonies — I came from Buddy Holly and the Crickets, the Everly Brothers, the Beatles. The Beatles built our bible as far as musical composition, arrangement and production went. The White Album is a complete catalog of how you should use a studio to build songs. “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” and “Dear Prudence” are blinding examples of how music can be like painting a picture on a canvas. In a sense, the Beatles were unburdened because they didn’t have to play the songs live. We became passionate about building stuff in the studio but also making it come to life on a stage.

In the early days, when you didn’t have full control over your show, was it hard to get your guitar sound to your liking on stage?

As soon as I found a Vox AC30 and a treble booster, which was given to me in concept by Rory Gallagher, I had my sound and I never had a problem. It was always the way I wanted it to be. It was my voice, and I was happy. I’m always looking to improve it, but that’s the basis and it hasn’t changed. Those Class A valves give you the smooth spectrum from clean to incredibly limited and saturated. Combined with my guitar, I got all the variations in tone I was looking for.

People often think of Freddie as a pianist, but he occasionally played guitar, and he would write with one, too. What kind of guitarist was he?

He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox — all downstrokes. He wrote the riff for “Ogre Battle” [from 1974’s Queen II]. I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving! He had a frenetic energy on the guitar, which came across very well in that song. He played the rhythm on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good. He kind of left the guitar after a while and concentrated more on the piano. In the latter days, he even left the piano behind. He just wanted to be a performer who ran around and had the freedom to be a frontman.

Speaking of performing, you and Freddie pioneered some of the rock star poses people use today.

Did we? [laughs]

I think so. Sure.

I don’t know where it all came from. We had our influences, but we were never choreographed. We did it all instinctively, but there was an awareness of energy flow on stage. I think Japan changed us. We went to Japan and were treated like we were the Beatles. Every move we made was greeted by some kind of response from the audience, so we learned very quickly, instinctively, to use that. I think I wasn’t a very physical guitar player in the beginning, but experiencing the Budokan and that wall of appreciation molded us into people who are much more physical and responsive to what the audience felt.

We could take days to go through your catalog, but I did want to touch on a few songs. It’s been said that that “Stone Cold Crazy” [from 1974’s Sheer Heart Attack] is a precursor to thrash metal. What were you guys thinking when you wrote it?

I can tell you exactly. Freddie wrote the lyric, and he already had a riff that he had played with his old band. I said, “That’s a great lyric and concept, but you need a better riff.” Freddie said, “OK, what do you got?” I started doing this frenetic riff to match the lyrics, and he really liked it. The whole band got into it, particularly Roger, because it’s very much based on the way he plays. It clicked quite quickly.

For some reason, we didn’t put it on the first album. We liked it, but we stuck it in a drawer thinking it would go on the second album. But that record was very highly arranged because we were consciously trying to push our music into a new place. Some people were pleased, but others weren’t. I remember getting a review in Australia saying, “Queen have abandoned their rock roots on Queen II.” I was shocked.

But that kind of response was an influence on Sheer Heart Attack, which was a deliberate attempt to recapture our original energy. We laid down “Stone Cold Crazy” very quickly, and we played it quickly. It’s one of the fastest tempos we’ve ever played. These days, if we play it on stage, we have fun with it. Sometimes we try to prove to ourselves that we can still flex our muscles at that rate, so it tends to get very fast. That’s when you have to pull it back, because it gets to the point where it loses its thump.

“The Prophet’s Song” appeared on 1975’s A Night at the Opera, but you were working on it at the time of Queen II.

I was. It was an obsession, and I’d been struggling with it. It did come from a dream — that isn’t a made-up thing. But I was trying to realize that dream, and I was having lots of problems with it. There were too many different bits, and it became a jumble.

I remember listening to Freddie playing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Rockfield. He had a piano outside at one point, and I thought, “My God, he’s got this thing organized so perfectly, and here I am struggling with these different bits.” Eventually, I did pull it together, but I don’t know if it came to the optimum point, even in the end. Of course, it was never as successful as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which became the prodigal child that has gone on to become immortal in so many ways. “The Prophet’s Song” is something Queen fans like, but it never conquered the world in the same way.

You mentioned James Burton, whom you emulate on “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

Oh, yes.

And there’s “Another One Bites the Dust.”

Yes, but the rhythm guitar isn’t me. John played the rhythm on that one. He obviously wrote the bassline and the whole thing. He was very insistent on getting his own touch with the rhythm, so that’s him on a Strat. I played all the heavy stuff, which wasn’t all that much. It just punctuates it. I have to tell you, getting that chunky rhythm feel is one of the hardest things I have to play live.

It’s very Nile Rodgers.

It’s very Nile Rodgers, and John absolutely adored him — we all do. John was very influenced by him, without a doubt. What an amazing guy Nile Rodgers is. He’s got his own vocabulary, his own world.

After Freddie’s passing, it took some time for Queen to tour again. How would you describe the differences between Paul Rodgers and how you now work with Adam Lambert?

It’s a good question. They’re both great, of course. We had a fantastic time with Paul. He has his own style, which we integrated into the band. But what happened was, there was a meeting point where we wanted to go deeply into his music — we were influenced by it in the first place. For me, it was a joy to play “All Right Now,” “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” and all those things.

It became difficult as time went on, though. We would play South America, where people didn’t know that music, so we played more Queen songs. Paul dealt with it well, but I think it was hard for him to abandon a lot of his material. We really enjoyed it as an experiment, but as an experiment it had… limits. Eventually, we thought, “It’s probably gone as far as it can. Paul needs to get back to his own career.” Because he couldn’t just go on being the frontman of Queen. By mutual agreement, we thought, “That’s it.”

Now, with Adam, it’s a different story, because Adam can do all the stuff that Freddie did and more. It doesn’t matter what you throw at Adam — he can do it. He can do “Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy” [from 1976’s A Day at the Races], which we wouldn’t dream of throwing at Paul Rodgers, because it just wouldn’t work. With Adam, it’s a different kettle of fish. He’s a born exhibitionist. He’s not Freddie, and he’s not pretending to be him, but he has a parallel set of equipment. He knows how to deal with an audience. He teases and taunts an audience quite naturally, without thinking about it. He loves to dress up. Although Paul did dress up a bit for us. We got a lot of sequins on him. [Laughs]

A little bit.

Adam lives and breathes that stuff. Adam is style, and that’s not to say he’s not content as well. He’s a born rock star and frontman, so it’s a very vibrant relationship we have with him. We treat Adam exactly the same as we treated Freddie in almost every way.

We talked about how you worked with Gwilym Lee, but what can we say about Rami Malek’s Oscar-winning performance as Freddie?

Ahh, Rami is such a phenomenon. He’s incredible. Rami became so Freddie-like in everyday life that we started to assume he was Freddie. It’s a really odd thing. That’s still the case. I mean, I think all the boys are great. The four of them, plus Lucy [Boynton, who portrayed Mercury’s longtime companion, Mary Austin] have become our extended family. We continue to spend a lot of time with them. It’s great.

A vintage eight-minute clip of Queen rehearsing and recording their classic song, “We Are the Champions,” during the studio sessions for 1977’s News of the World has surfaced. 

At the top of the clip, singer Freddie Mercury can been seen answering a journalist’s question about whether the enjoys working in the studio:

“Yes,” Mercury responds. “You can get sick of it though. Especially now. [So] we’ve decided that on our albums we wouldn’t spend as much time as we’ve done in the past… Especially with News of the World, I think we actually did decide before we went in [that] it was going to be a short album as far as Queen standards are concerned.

“We had something like a week-and-a-half, two weeks to actually write all the material. And it was nice. We didn’t fall into this thing of it being overripe before we actually recorded it.”

The first trailer for the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody has been released, and you can watch it above.

The film—which is set to hit theaters November 2—stars Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, and tells the story of the band from its formation to its legendary set at London's Wembley Arena for the Live Aid in 1985.

Ben Hardy (Roger Taylor), Gwilym Lee (Brian May) and Joseph Mazzello (John Deacon) also star in the film, which was stuck in developmental hell for years, and was originally supposed to feature Sasha Baron Cohen as Mercury, before he pulled out of the film in 2013.

You can also take a look at its poster below.

Here’s a rare acoustic gem from Queen’s now legendary Queen at Wembley video release. Freddie Mercury and Brian May take the stage for a moving performance of “Love of My Life,” while rain pours down on the Wembley crowd. The clip was filmed July 11, 1986.

The studio version of the track appears on Queen’s classic LP, A Night at the Opera. Here, May plays some excellent fingerstyle guitar on a 12-string acoustic and tells the crowd, “Hope you’re not getting to wet out there! You OK?’ Mercury follows, inviting the crowd to sing along. Watch it below and enjoy!

Find out more at queenonline.com.

For some reason, Kanye West decided to perform Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" at last weekend’s Glastonbury Festival.

He didn't do a very good job, and he should probably avoid the song in the future. Hey, it's true.

Regardless, someone took the time to edit Kanye’s performance with archival footage of Mercury looking on and laughing. Eventually, the clip cuts to Mercury belting out the song as West, well, doesn't laugh at all.

"Hey, this has nothing to do with guitars!"

True, but remember that "Bohemian Rhapsody" made Guitar World's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time several years ago, coming in at Number 20.

The tune also is a huge favorite with acoustic fingerstylists—as seen in this exclusive GW tutorial by Daryl Kellie.

And if you really like this classic song, be sure to check out this interesting version—renamed "Bohemian Carsody"—by the women of SketchShe.

Although we're not permitted to embed the video into this story, just CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW, and you'll be taken to the clip ASAP. Enjoy!

Why should guitarists have all the fun?

GuitarWorld.com recently launched a new readers poll in partnership with Samson: the Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll.

We're certain that, even though our core readership is mainly made up of guitarists from different genres, locations and age groups, you — like us — have strong opinions about the skills (or lack thereof) of some of rock's most legendary singers.

And although we had hundreds of rock singers to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to a mere 16 names, all of which were carefully chosen by Guitar World's editorial staff. We took great care in choosing what's essentially a Sweet 16 starting point. Rock singers from every decade, starting with the 1960s, are represented, as are several rock sub-genres.

Here are our 16 rock singers in alphabetical order:

Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, James Hetfield, Mick Jagger, Maynard James Keenan, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott.

From there, we drew singers' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Black Sabbath baseball cap) to help us create our opening 16-singer bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of singers are ranked or coming from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Round 1 and the Elite Eight round have come and gone, and the Final Four round is almost over! Today it's Freddie Mercury of Queen against Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave.

You can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is). Remember that, as with any music poll, sub-genre might occasionally clash against sub-genre, so you'll just need to decide which singer has or had the most to offer within his genre and time period, which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other singers or rock in general — maybe which one was simply the stronger frontman.

Latest Results

Winner: Robert Plant (64.34 percent)
Loser: Bruce Dickinson (35.66 percent)

Today's Samson Greatest Rock Singers Final Four Matchup (2 of 2)
Freddie Mercury Vs. Chris Cornell

FREDDIE MERCURY

Born: September 5, 1946, Stone Town, Zanzibar City, Tanzania
Died: November 24, 1991, Kensington, England
Associated Acts: Queen
Website:freddiemercury.com

Quote: "We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear."

CHRIS CORNELL

Born: July 20, 1964, Seattle, Washington
Associated Acts: Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog
Website:chriscornell.com

Quote: "To me, music shouldn't be ego-driven. When you go out on stage and play songs, it is. But when you're sitting in a room, writing songs, it's a completely different process. It's a completely different place. It's a creative place, a musical place. It has nothing to do with who likes what."

Voting Closed!

Winner: Chris Cornell (51.51 percent)
Loser: Freddie Mercury (48.49 percent)

Thanks for voting! Check out our current matchup (and every matchup that has taken place so far) right HERE.

The BracketCheck out the latest version of the 16-singer bracket below. We'll update it after each Samson Greatest Rock Singer of All Time matchup.October 25, 2013, Samson Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll

Why should guitarists have all the fun?

GuitarWorld.com recently launched a new readers poll in partnership with Samson: the Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll.

We're certain that, even though our core readership is mainly made up of guitarists from different genres, locations and age groups, you — like us — have strong opinions about the skills (or lack thereof) of some of rock's most legendary singers.

And although we had hundreds of rock singers to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to a mere 16 names, all of which were carefully chosen by Guitar World's editorial staff. We took great care in choosing what's essentially a Sweet 16 starting point. Rock singers from every decade, starting with the 1960s, are represented, as are several rock sub-genres.

Here are our 16 rock singers in alphabetical order:

Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, James Hetfield, Mick Jagger, Maynard James Keenan, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott.

From there, we drew singers' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Black Sabbath baseball cap) to help us create our opening 16-singer bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of singers are ranked or coming from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Round 1 has come and gone, and the Elite Eight round kicks off today! As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll post two or three matchups per week, continuing with today's Elite Eight shootout, Freddie Mercury of Queen against Ronnie James Dio of Black Sabbath, Dio and Rainbow.

Remember that, as with any poll, sub-genre might occasionally clash against sub-genre, so you'll just need to decide which singer has or had the most to offer within his genre and time period, which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other singers or rock in general — maybe which one was simply the stronger frontman.

Latest Results

Winner: Bruce Dickinson (66.56 percent)
Loser: Mick Jagger (33.44 percent)

Today's Samson Greatest Rock Singers Elight Eight Matchup (3 of 4)
Freddie Mercury Vs. Ronnie James Dio

FREDDIE MERCURY

Born: September 5, 1946, Stone Town, Zanzibar City, Tanzania
Died: November 24, 1991, Kensington, England
Associated Acts: Queen
Website:freddiemercury.com

Quote: "We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear."

RONNIE JAMES DIO

Born: July 10, 1942, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Died: May 16, 2010, Houston, Texas
Associated Acts: Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Dio, Heaven & Hell, Elf, Hear 'n Aid
Website:ronniejamesdio.com

Quote: "Music, rock and roll music especially, is such a generational thing. Each generation must have their own music, I had my own in my generation, you have yours, everyone I know has their own generation."

Vote Now!

Winner: Freddie Mercury (60.76 percent)
Loser: Ronnie James Dio (39.24 percent)

Thanks for voting! Check out our current matchup (and every matchup that has taken place so far) right HERE.

The BracketCheck out the latest version of the 16-singer bracket below. We'll update it after each Samson Greatest Rock Singer of All Time matchup.October 18, 2013, Samson Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll

Why should guitarists have all the fun?

GuitarWorld.com recently launched a new readers poll in partnership with Samson: the Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll.

We're certain that, even though our core readership is mainly made up of guitarists from different genres, locations and age groups, you — like us — have strong opinions about the skills (or lack thereof) of some of rock's most legendary singers.

And although we had hundreds of rock singers to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to a mere 16 names, all of which were carefully chosen by Guitar World's editorial staff. We took great care in choosing what's essentially a Sweet 16 starting point. Rock singers from every decade, starting with the 1960s, are represented, as are several rock sub-genres.

Here are our 16 rock singers in alphabetical order:

Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Bruce Dickinson, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, James Hetfield, Mick Jagger, Maynard James Keenan, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Bon Scott.

From there, we drew singers' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a Black Sabbath baseball cap) to help us create our opening 16-singer bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of singers are ranked or coming from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Remember that, as with any poll, sub-genre might occasionally clash against sub-genre, so you'll just need to decide which singer has or had the most to offer within his genre and time period, which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other singers or rock in general — maybe which one was simply the stronger frontman.

Let's get started! As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll post two or three matchups per week, continuing with today's shootout, Phil Anselmo of Pantera and Down against Freddie Mercury of Queen.

Latest Results

Winner: Chris Cornell (89.47 percent)
Loser: Randy Blythe (10.53 percent)

Today's Samson Greatest Rock Singers Round 1 Matchup (8 of 8)
Phil Anselmo Vs. Freddie Mercury

PHIL ANSELMO

Born: June 30, 1968, New Orleans, Louisiana
Associated Acts: Pantera, Down, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals
Website:philanselmo.com

Quote: "I tried to take heavy metal ... and balled it up and chopped it in half and really tried to create a new form of energy. I really tried to re-shape extreme music as I see it through my eyes."

FREDDIE MERCURY

Born: September 5, 1946, Stone Town, Zanzibar City, Tanzania
Died: November 24, 1991, Kensington, England
Associated Acts: Queen
Website:freddiemercury.com

Quote: "We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear."

Voting Closed!

Winner: Freddie Mercury (84.93 percent)
Loser: Phil Anselmo (15.07 percent)

Thanks for voting! Check out our current matchup (and every matchup that has taken place so far) right HERE.

The BracketCheck out the latest version of the 16-singer bracket below. We'll update it after each Samson Greatest Rock Singer of All Time matchup.October 11, 2013, Samson Greatest Rock Singers of All Time Readers Poll