Queen guitarist Brian May gave fans a scare last week after an Instagram post showed him in a U.K. hospital. His hospitalization, however, was not due to COVID-19, but “over-enthusiastic gardening.”
“No – the Virus didn’t get me yet – thank God… I managed to rip my Gluteus Maximus to shreds in a moment of over-enthusiastic gardening,” the rocker wrote in the caption of his post last Wednesday.
Related: Brian May Leads International Online Group Cover of Queen’s “Hammer to Fall” [Watch]
“So suddenly I find myself in a hospital getting scanned to find out exactly how much I’ve actually damaged myself. Turns out I did a thorough job – this is a couple of days ago – and I won’t be able to walk for a while… or sleep, without a lot of assistance, because the pain is so relentless. So, folks… I need to go dark for a while, getting some complete rest, at home,” he continued.
Spoiler alert: May didn’t go dark. In fact, May went on to make a couple of COVID-19/coronavirus-related posts, calling out U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and calling for harsher restrictions on meat and other animal products.
May’s first post following his hospitalization opens with a high-gain guitar lick as he sits in a chair at his U.K. home.
“I’ve been so disgusted and appalled and disappointed by the fact that we seem to be returning, at this pivotal point, to the world that we had before. I don’t believe this country wants that. I believe this country wants a better world. The world before is what got us into this mess,” he said, eluding to a previous video post that blamed, at least in part, the COVID-19 pandemic on humans’ consumption of animal products.
He compelled Boris Johnson to levy high taxes on animal products, and subsidize farmers in order to retrain them for the production of more plant-based crops as opposed to livestock. May went on to exclaim his frustration with Johnson’s policies regarding pollution and Brittain’s high-speed railway, HS2.
In a follow-up video, may elaborated, “Let’s require our leaders to rebuild a New Brittain based on Compassion, Common Decency, and Respect for all creatures. How can we apply what we have learned during lockdown?”
Below, watch Brian May discuss these topics after his release from the hospital.