Queen without Freddie Mercury ‘is NOT a tribute band’ Brian May SLAMS ‘half-a**ed critic’

Back in 1991, Queen lost Freddie Mercury and it looked like it was the end of the road for the band. Six years later bassist John Deacon retired, but that didn’t stop Brian May and Roger Taylor keeping Queen alive. In the years that followed the rockers collaborated with Paul Rodgers, before their current team up know as Queen and Adam Lambert which has been together since 2011. Now they’re on their Rhapsody Tour together following the success of Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

So far Queen and Adam Lambert have performed in Vancouver, Tacoma and San Jose, with Phoenix being their next stop on the tour.

While praising fans in San Jose, May has revealed he found it insulting and condescending of one critic to call the act a “tribute band” without Freddie Mercury and Roger Deacon.

May wrote on his Instagram: “Me and my Bro’ say THANKS San Jose for a great welcome tonight.

“Me and my Bro’ might disagree about anything you care to name, but we have learned mutual respect over the years, and somehow when we play together, some kind of magic still happens.”

DID YOU SPOT THIS HIDDEN FREDDIE MERCURY MOMENT AT LIVE AID?

May continued: “All hail Rog !!! We are proud of what we are, an ouvre we have worked for nearly 50 years to create and constantly update.

“I have to say that being called a ‘tribute band’ by some half-a**ed critic in the local paper is an insult I will not quickly forget.

“We don’t need your condescension, Sonny Jim. That’s my life’s work you’re dismissing there.

“I guess you’re the only one who didn’t really ’get it’ in that wonderful rockin’ crowd tonight in the good ol’ SAP Center. I can still hear your roar, folks, ringing in my ears.”

He added: “Bless ya’all. Excellent photo by excellent photographer Helen Bovil ! (sorry Helen – missed that last night) Bri.”

Meanwhile, in a previous post, May praised Adam Lambert as the reason Queen is still alive, saying Freddie would approve.

He wrote: “Here is the Modern Marvel without whom, for sure, Queen would not be out here delivering at the top level.

“ADAM LAMBERT is only now beginning to be recognised by the greater public as the true phenomenon that he is.

“Gifted with a voice in a billion, for himself he is a passionate and unyielding perfectionist. Gifted to us, he is the reason that we are still alive as a functioning rock band.”