Watch Brian May’s Majestic ‘God’ Cover by John Lennon

A year later after the death of Queen’s lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury, the remaining members of the group were still grieving in different forms. Bassist John Deacon perhaps decided to leave Queen for good, while guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor were in denial of the truth that Mercury will no longer be a part of the foursome.

When feelings are at their peak, sometimes we do things we later regret. Brian May, still feeling at lost, wanted to be disassociated with the remnants of Queen as far as possible. So, on September 28, 1992, he released his first studio album Back to the Light, which channeled his grievances about the loss of his great friend and his band Queen.

“I think Roger and I both went through a kind of normal grieving process but accentuated by the fact it has to be public,” Brian May said in an interview. “We sort of went into denial, like, ‘Yeah, well, we did Queen, but we do something else now.’ Roger and I plunged into our solo work and didn’t want to talk about Queen. That seems almost nonsensical because we spent half of our lives constructing Queen.”

While it’s healthy to mourn over what was definitely a huge loss, May took a step too far when he covered John Lennon’s “God,” released after the Beatles’ break-up, inside his first post-Beatles album. In the song, Lennon mentions “I don’t believe in Beatles,” implying a change of heart from the band he once had a life with. That’s exactly the case for May, who replaced that line “I don’t believe in Queen anymore” during his version inside a solo set.

“I went so far as to adapt John Lennon’s ‘God’ song in my solo stage act to say, ‘I don’t believe in Queen anymore” He further said. “That was a vast overreaction. I didn’t need to do that; why would I do that? Because I couldn’t cope with looking at it.”

Nevertheless, May’s emotions are poignant to feel in the video shown below. You can watch it here.