Brian May says it’s “not impossible” that Queen could discuss playing Glastonbury Festival

17 July 2023, 13:13 | Updated: 17 July 2023, 16:23

Queen's Brian May has talked about Glastonbury Festival. Picture: 1. Dave Benett/Getty Images 2. Matt Cardy/Getty Images

By Jenny Mensah

The legendary Queen guitarist has revisited the idea of the Bohemian Rhapsody rockers headlining the Somerset Festival.

Sir Brian May has discussed the possibility of Queen playing Glastonbury.

The Bohemian Rhapsody guitarist has previously gone head-to-head with festival founder Michael Eavis over badger-culling and said Queen - who consist of himself and other surviving member Roger Taylor alongside touring singer Adam Lambert - could never headline.

Now, in a new interview with The Guardian, the 75 year-old rocker has seemed to soften his stance, saying: “The fact that Michael Eavis supports badger-culling is difficult for me to swallow.

“I don’t really want to endorse his festival, but it’s not impossible that we could sit down and talk. I’ll talk to anyone – that’s the way we go forward”.

May has previously slammed Michael Eavis for his stance on badgers, telling Daily Mail that he thought his views were a “danger to farming”.

May said in response: “We won’t [play Glastonbury] and there are a lot of reasons for that. One of them is that Michael Eavis has frequently insulted me, and I don’t particularly enjoy that.

"What bothers me more is that he’s in favour of the badger cull, which I regard as a tragedy and an unnecessary crime against wildlife"

He added: “There’s a little bit of a schism there, I wouldn’t do Glastonbury. Unless things changed radically.”

As recently as this year, Brian May doubled down on his stance on the festival, telling The Sun: “Would I ever do it? No. As the man who runs it advocates killing badgers for no good reason and I could never level with that.

“Have they tried to book us? I think the feeling is mutual so I think they understand how I feel.”

Meanwhile, the dates for Glastonbury 2024 have not long been confirmed, but there are already some stars who’ve taken themselves out of the line-up.

Last month, just two days after the festival closed its doors to their 2023 edition, the festival shared a photo of a poster on their legendary bin, which read: “See you in 366 days.”

The means next year's festival will take place from 26th - 30th June next year.

Taylor Swift was one of the top artists speculated to headline the event in 2024, but after adding further Dublin dates to her 2024 Eras tour, the global icon has completely ruled herself out of headlining all three days at the festival.

It was thought that the Karma singer would be at the top of the list to headline the festival after she was due to play the event in 2020, but it was forced to close its doors for two years due to the pandemic.