When Brian May's father started work in 1963 building a home-made guitar out of
a discarded mantelpiece, he couldn't possibly have predicted the incredible
journey the guitar and his son would eventually take. Brian May, born July 19,
1947 in London, and the homemade guitar he calls The Red Special would end up as
the cornerstone of one of the world's biggest rock bands who in their heyday
played to over a quarter of a million fans when Queen, the band he founded with
Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, headlined the Rio Rock Festival. Using his
distinctive guitar May developed an ...