Queen’s Brian May Discloses Heart Attack Details, Says “Ready To Rock”
Don’t stop him now. Queen’s Brian May has revealed a big scare from what he termed a “small heart atttack,” but is on the mend and “ready to rock.”
In an Instagram post, the co-founder of Queen and a collaborator on 2018’s smash Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, said the heart attack discovery was made after he was treated earlier this month for a tear to his gluteus maximus during a moment of “over-enthusiastic gardening.”
May on Instagram said he wanted to “tell the truth about what happened” after “people were making up stories out there.” Says May in the post (see it below), “I thought I was a healthy guy… I keep fit… anyway in the middle of the whole saga of the painful backside, I had a small heart attack.”
While he did have a rip in his gluteus maximus, a week later May said he was still in “real agony.” Eventually, an MRI reveled a compressed sciatic nerve. But the rest of the story “is a bit more bizarre.” May found himself with “about 40 minutes of pain in the chest and tightness and that feeling in the arms and sweating and you know…” His “rather wonderful doctor” drove him to the hospital for an angiogram where he was told, “This is a little more complicated than we thought.”
May had three arteries that were congested and in danger of blocking the supply to his heart. Ultimately, he opted for stents rather than open-heart surgery to abate the situation. “I walked out with a heart that’s very strong now, so I think I’m in good shape for a very long time to come. I have this feeling that like everybody from the age of 60 onwards should have an angiogram whether they have any problems or not because that’s the only thing that can tell you. I had no idea… Nothing could tell me I was about to be in real trouble, I could have died from the blockages that were there.”
He adds on the Insta video, “I didn’t die, I came out and I would have been full of beans if it weren’t for the leg… I think there’s some lessons to be learned, I must say. And I think we’ve all got to really look at ourselves as we get to the autumn years and what seems to be a very healthy heart may not be. I would get it checked if I were you and I will get it checked from time to time now. But I’m very grateful that I now have a life to lead again. I was very near death from this but the pain I had was from something completely different. It’s funny, but I’m good, I’m here and I’m ready to rock… There’s no need to panic, please don’t send me sympathies, send me congratulations.”
Here’s May’s latest update: