Brian May talks Queen musical: 'Freddie would love it'

Patrick Ryan | USA TODAY

You don't need to be a killer queen or a fat-bottomed girl to love the Queen musical We Will Rock You.

"It's a very feel-good thing," says Brian May, legendary Queen guitarist and founding member. "It's repeat business which keeps musicals alive, and people wanting to come back and have that feeling again. (This show) is very good for that."

Now in its 12th year in London's West End, We Will Rock You has solidified its status as an international phenomenon, with various productions playing all corners of the globe and selling more than 15 million tickets worldwide. Following a one-year Las Vegas engagement that ended in 2005, the vibrant rock 'n' roll production is finally launching its first, 26-city North American tour on Oct. 15 in Baltimore, which ends next August in Los Angeles. It's an invigorating moment for May, who serves as producer and music supervisor of the show alongside Queen drummer Roger Taylor.

"It's exciting, now that there's a proper venture to the States," May says. "There are quite a lot of changes (to the show), but that's normal to We Will Rock You. It's never been a rubber stamp. Every country it's appeared in, it's been rewritten because the idea is that you feel like you're in the story, and the story is based on the history of rock 'n' roll in the seat that you're sitting. It's a fabulous new version."

The Ben Elton-penned musical interweaves 25 Queen classics with a story set 300 years in the future, where a group of young bohemians fight to restore free thinking and live music in a dystopian society. It's a far cry from May and Taylor's initial, autobiographical vision for the musical (think Jersey Boys, but with Queen), which they ultimately found "too morbid and too set in the past," May says.

Instead, the show's current incarnation is much more humorous and satirical, with a soundtrack of the band's most beloved tunes that speak of individuality and growing up.

"Queen songs tend to be about very personal things: personal dreams and personal ambitions," May says. "Queen songs are not about the life of a rock star, they tend to be about the lives of normal people, which is why I think the songs connect so much. We're very lucky that they seemingly connect with every generation."

Although, as May admits, it's nice to step away from Queen now and again to pursue "something new with no clear expectations, where you have an open canvas." The 66-year-old rocker has been wearing a number of hats lately, as he readies to release Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell (out Oct. 15), which he co-wrote with Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming. The stereo-photography book contains 19th-century stereoscopic cards, with photographs that appear in 3-D when seen through a companion viewer. A new Queen album is also on the table, after uncovering some of the band's old forgotten tapes (which include collaborations between Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury, the band's lead singer who died in 1991).

"The music is there and it's great, and I think people will really enjoy it," May says of the album, which is aiming for a summer 2014 release. "We keep finding more and more tapes, so we'll certainly be working on stuff that sounds like new Queen tracks in the next few months. It's exciting."

Things are also starting to pick up with the long-gestating Freddie Mercury biopic film, which previously attached star Sacha Baron Cohen left in July. While May suggests there is a script that he and Taylor are "90 percent happy with," they're in no hurry to get this to the big screen.

"We don't want to rush this. We want to be absolutely confident that it's right," May says. "It doesn't pull any punches, it's not in any sense sanitized. We want it to be real and truthful, but obviously entertaining."

And how does he believe Mercury would take to the popular musical extravaganza?

"(Freddie is) very much a part of it and I know that he would love it."