Brian May’s Red Special: The Story of the Home-made Guitar that Rocked Queen and the World

Get the full story behind the Red Special, Brian May’s hand-built guitar—a unique instrument that helped make May’s musical dreams come true.

In 1963, Brian May and his father Harold started to build the Red Special—an electric guitar meant to outperform anything commercially made. Here, Brian talks about of his one-of-a-kind instrument, from its creation on. He played it on every single Queen album and during the band’s amazing shows: the roof of Buckingham Palace, Live Aid, the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics . . . and beyond. Along with original diagrams, sketches, and notes, May has included a great selection of photographs of himself with the guitar—which was fully dismantled so it could be shot— as well as close-ups and X-rays.