QUEEN guitarist Brian May has confirmed to Mojo magazine that the band’s former bassist John Deacon is still involved in the group’s decision-making process. “John still has a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ say,” he said. “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, late QUEEN singer] we can’t talk to, sadly. But the four of us worked as a team for so long that Roger [Taylor, QUEEN drummer] and I have a pretty good idea what our fellow QUEEN members would be saying. This thing is longer that anybody’s marriage.”
In a July 2023 interview with The Guardian, May was asked if he any inkling that Deacon would leave the band and take no further part after Freddie‘s death. Brian responded: “All I can say is that, historically, John was quite sensitive to stress. We all found it hard, losing Freddie, but I think John particularly struggled. We did do a couple of things together, in 1996: the recording of ‘No One But You’ — the song I wrote about Freddie when we were putting up the statue to commemorate him in Montreux [Switzerland] — and one show in Paris. It was to open the ballet season with an amazing new work by Maurice Béjart, about Mozart and QUEEN. We played with John on bass, and Elton John sang with us. At that moment, John just looked at us and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ We knew that he at least needed a break, but as it turned out he never came back. I don’t think that I can go into much more detail — we have to respect the fact that John needs his privacy now — but he’s still part of the machinery of the band. If we have any major decision, business-wise, it’s always run past John. It doesn’t mean he talks to us — generally he doesn’t — but he will communicate in some way. He’s still very much part of QUEEN.”
Deacon, who co-wrote some of QUEEN‘s biggest hits including “Another One Bites The Dust” and “You’re My Best Friend”, retired from music soon after Mercury‘s death. “As far as we are concerned, this is it,” John said at the time. “There is no point carrying on. It is impossible to replace Freddie.”
Deacon eventually played three more times with the band, including at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and a charity concert with Roger Taylor at Cowdray House in England in 1993. His last live appearance with QUEEN took place in 1997, at the opening of the Bejart Ballet in Paris in 1997, where the band played one of the final songs they recorded with Mercury, “The Show Must Go On”, with Elton John on vocals. Deacon was also involved in the recording of QUEEN‘s 1997 song “No One But You (Only The Good Die Young)”, which was included on the “Queen Rocks” album.
