Brian May stabilized, playing instruments again after stroke affected arm mobility

Queen guitarist Brian May has regained use of his left arm after having a stroke over the summer, according to his wife, British actor Anita Dobson.

“He’s much better now, he’s stabilized now, which is brilliant,” Dobson told the Mirror. “I just hope we don’t have any more reoccurrences [sic].”

May, 77, announced in September that he had suffered a “minor stroke,” apparently in late August, that briefly affected his ability to control his arm. The stroke, which he referred to as a “little health hiccup,” came “all of a sudden, out of the blue,” but he was OK.

His wife told the Mirror that the musician is able to use his affected arm again. Although it “was a bit of a challenge,” he’s “good to go now,” she said.

“He’s playing the piano quite a lot in the house. He likes a lot of Beethoven. I love it — the piano in the house is really just very relaxing,” the “East Enders” star said, adding that May didn’t try to play instruments until after he recovered “quite a bit.”

“And then he very slowly started to pick up an acoustic guitar and gradually just exercise the muscles. And it very quickly came back,” she explained. “He’s just retraining the messages from your brain to that arm, that it’s actually OK to do what it used to do. It was scary. And also being a genius for someone like that. His brain’s overloaded, that’s what it is. He’s too clever for his own good.”

The “Bohemian Rhapsody” musician, an astrophysicist who mounted a hugely successful music career with the legendary rock band, mentioned that the stroke slightly impaired his arm at first, but in a video revealing the illness in September, May waved the fingers on his left hand to show that they had some dexterity.

“The good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” May said at the time. The rocker was transported to a hospital after the stroke and had “fantastic care” but didn’t want to publicize his illness because he didn’t want sympathy or anything that would “clutter up my inbox.”

“The good news is I’m OK. Just doing what I’m told, which is basically nothing. I’m grounded,” the “We Will Rock You” songwriter said, noting that he wasn’t allowed to do activities that would “raise the heart rate too high.”

May has been out and about since the stroke and has continued to post about the band and his animal welfare activism on Instagram.

The musician, who was knighted by King Charles III in 2023, suffered a “small heart attack” in 2020 that left him “very near death” at the time. Doctors told him that he had three blocked arteries and placed stents to keep them open, he said. Other health complications have developed because of his medication, he told The Times of London, one of which he said caused “a stomach explosion that nearly killed me.”