Brian May confirms in a new interview with Mojo that retired bassist John Deacon still has say in Queen’s decisions. 

The 73-year-old bassist joined Queen in 1971 and retired from the music industry in 1997 after recording “No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young)”. 

Promoting the upcoming boxset of Queen’s first album, May was asked if Deacon was still involved with Queen’s decisions.

“John still has a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ say,” reveals May. “We get messages that he’s happy with what we’re doing, but he doesn’t want the stress of being involved creatively, and we respect that. Freddie [Mercury, singer] we can’t talk to, sadly. But the four of us worked as a team for so long that Roger and I have a pretty good idea what our fellow Queen members would be saying. This thing is longer that anybody’s marriage.”

To mark the release of the remixed, remastered and extended Queen 1 boxset, Brian May and Roger Taylor recall the rocky road that led to the recording of their eponymous debut album. In this opening episode, we hear how an opportunity to be a test band for a brand new studio provides the all important breakthrough they had been desperately searching for.

Queen The Greatest Special - The Story of Queen 1 - Part 2 will follow on November 1.

Queen’s groundbreaking 1973 debut album, Queen, remixed, remastered and expanded in a 6CD+1LP box set Queen I Collector’s Edition will be released on October 25. Brian May unboxes the set in the new video below:

The 6CD + 1 LP Queen I box set contains 63 tracks with 43 brand new mixes, comprising the original album with its intended running order restored, intimate fly-on-the-wall audio of Queen in the studio, demos, rare live tracks, and previously unheard recordings from Queen’s first ever live performance in London, August 1970. Absent from the 1973 release, the song “Mad the Swine” has been reinstated to its original place in the running order. A 108-page book containing handwritten lyrics and memorabilia accompanies the release.

“This is not just a remaster,” writes Brian May in the CD sleeve insert notes, “this is a brand new 2024 rebuild of the entire Queen debut album, which, with the benefit of hindsight, we have re-titled QUEEN I.”

May continues, “All the performances are exactly as they originally appeared in 1973, but every instrument has been revisited to produce the ‘live’ ambient sounds we would have liked to use originally. The result is “Queen“ as it would have sounded with today’s knowledge and technology – a first.”

“Queen I is the debut album we always dreamed of bringing to you.”

Go to Queen's official website for further details on the release. Watch a video trailer, as well as a 3D unboxing video for the collector's edition, below: