Brian May of Queen finally reaches out to Rocky!
For a long time, there has been much speculation about Brian May and myself and the mystery meeting we had in the 70’s. Recently, Brian brought it up again in Guitar Player Magazine and said some very complimentary things about my playing.
“Oh, that’s a beautiful thing to do; he creates a completely new dimension”
Brian May of Queen
And then Guitar World Magazine reached out to me to confirm the story.
Finally, the truth is out there! The story Brian told Guitar Player Magazine is exactly what I remembered. It really is true that Brian saw me play at Mother Blues in Dallas in the 70’s and he really did tell me that he was going to “nick” the trick I was doing that night. Anyone who saw my first band, Lightning, saw me do the double handed tapping trick regularly. Little did I know then, that Brian meant what he said and he would play it on his next album and then go on to inspire Eddie Van Halen.
“He’d put his right hand onto a fret and make this beautiful singing sound...I said “I’m going to nick that!”
And then THIS happened…
My phone rings and it’s Guitar World saying that Brian saw the article and wanted to contact me directly. I said, “Right. After all this time?”
Well, the answer is YES! After all these years, Brian said he remembers the night vividly and always wondered if he would ever find me again. He went on to say that he couldn’t believe the level of talent he was witnessing in a nightclub and that we were “brilliant”. I have to admit it felt pretty good to hear those words from Brian. Who knew?
Thank you to Guitar Player Magazine, Guitar World Magazine, Andrew Daly and Brian May for telling my story! And a special shout out to all of you that were there back in the day and continue to rock with me all these years later. Thank YOU! All of you are AWESOME!
Rocky Athas during the 70’s around the time of the Brian May meeting.
Please click on the following links for the original stories - https://www.guitarworld.com/news/rocky-athas-taught-brian-may-tapping
https://www.guitarplayer.com/news/brian-may-rocky-athas-tapping