QUEEN's BRIAN MAY Thanks Fans For 'Torrent Of Love And Support' After Heart Attack

QUEEN guitarist Brian May has thanked fans for a "torrent of love and support' after revealing that he recently suffered a "small heart attack."

Earlier in the month, the 72-year-old musician injured his buttocks and assumed assumed the injury was the cause of the pain he was feeling. Still in "agony," May had an MRI of his spine done, revealing a compressed sciatic nerve, the result, he said, of, "50 years of running around with a guitar strap over my left shoulder holding a heavy guitar." According to the guitarist, the nerve was "quite severely compressed and that's why I had this feeling that someone was putting a screwdriver in my back." Then one day, for about 40 minutes, he felt tightness in his chest and pain in his arms. "In the middle of the whole saga of the painful backside, I had a small heart attack," May said. "To cut a long story short, my wonderful doctor drove me to the hospital himself." An angiogram revealed a massive blockage that left him "very near death," but said he's feeling remarkably well after being fitted with three stents — tiny tubes that can hold open blocked arteries.

May now says he is "thrilled" by "the fantastic amount of love" he has received since he went public with his latest medical ordeal.

In a video message on his web site, May said: "Can't quite make it to the music room today — the so-called music room. Battling things a bit today, but I'm overwhelmed. I'm really more than touched by the torrent of love and support that's come back at me after incredible coverage in the press. I really didn't expect all that.

"As you can see, I'm okay but this is going to sound really strange, but my e-mail box and the Save-Me box and everything else are so full of incredible messages. I will never ever be able to thank you all individually, so let me please at least thank you here. It's just unbelievable.

"This is going to sound very strange but I sort of feel like I died and yet I was able to come to the funeral and see all the tributes. I hadn't thought that at funerals. I don't know if you think that. You know all these people who come and say these wonderful things about the person that's gone, but you can't hear it or she can't hear it, and so I'm lucky I got to hear it so my life is complete.

"I'm sorry that sounds weird, but I can't compare it with anything. I just looked at all the publicity that was generated, so I'm thrilled, and I'm pretty good today. I'm taking it easy and taking all the right things and do the physio and all the rest of it. So I'm going to be fully functional pretty soon.

"But thank you, thank you, thank you. That's all I can say for the fantastic amount of love you give me. It's really appreciated. I will never forget it."

Last month, May and his QUEEN bandmates released a new version of their iconic song "We Are the Champions" in support of workers on the frontline fighting coronavirus. May, drummer Roger Taylor and singer Adam Lambert teamed up to record "You Are The Champions", with all proceeds going towards the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization.

QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT was scheduled to embark on the European leg of its "Rhapsody" tour, but the ongoing pandemic led the musicians to postpone the dates.