Brian May and Roger Taylor have continued forward with Queen in the wake of frontman Freddie Mercury’s AIDS-related death, preparing a sparkling reissue of the group’s self-titled debut set for release on Friday. As usual, however, bassist John Deacon remains firmly in the background. He hasn’t appeared with the band since a single-song performance with Elton John in the Ballet for Life on Jan. 17, 1997, at the Paris National Theatre de Chailioton. “It’s his choice. He doesn’t contact us. John was quite delicate all along,” May told the Daily Mail in 2018. “I haven’t heard a squeak from John,” Taylor added. “Not a single guttural grunt.”Deacon remained silent a few years ago amid the hoopla surrounding the Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and more recently when Queen enjoyed a massive financial windfall by selling their catalog. There’s also been no public comment on May and Taylor’s recent tours with singer Adam Lambert. READ MORE: The Very Best John Deacon Queen SongsBut the reclusive Deacon remains a voting member in the band’s affairs, May reveals in a new interview with Mojo. “John still has a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ say,” May confirmed. “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, we can’t talk to, sadly.”Watch John Deacon’s Last Performance With QueenWhy Did John Deacon Quit Queen?Deacon’s final song, ironically, was “The Show Must Go On.” But he quit abruptly after the Paris show, telling May and Taylor that he could “never do this again.” He didn’t. “That was John’s last-ever performance – and I could tell he wasn’t happy because he was sort of chain-smoking and very, very nervous,” Taylor remembered in 2022. Deacon had “been severely traumatized by losing Freddie.”The Ballet for Life with John was one of just three times Deacon performed in public following Mercury’s death in 1991, including the star-studded 1992 tribute concert for Mercury and a 1993 fundraiser for the King Edward VII Hospital.Along the way, however, May says he and Taylor have gotten a feel for making the right decisions in their absence. “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,” he tells Mojo. “This thing is longer than anybody’s marriage.”The Best Song From Every Queen AlbumA thread runs through it all: a hard-won sense of individuality. Queen were a band like no other.Gallery Credit: Nick DeRisoYou Think You Know Queen?
