Brian May’s drunken night with Eddie Van Halen led to a serious injury

It’s been 40 years since Brian May recorded a mini-album on a whim with Eddie Van Halen.

On a break from Queen in 1983, he decided to call up the late guitarist for a jam on what would eventually become the Star Fleet Sessions.

He remembered: “I thought, I hardly ever see Ed. And wouldn’t it be great to have some time together, and not only that, but actually play and look into each other’s eyes and play off each other, see what happens? So that was an immense, a big kind of step for me.”

“I’m a bit of a shy person, to be honest, and if I hadn’t been in that particularly ebullient kind of ‘I want to be free’ mood in Los Angeles, it never would have happened.”

Sir Brian continued: “Me being in the studio with Ed, yeah, I was in awe. I mean, I’ve got to be honest. I was in awe. I just thought ‘What an amazing thing’… I felt like ‘I’m in the presence of a God here’, there was also this feeling of pure joy, pure joy, just being in the room with that guy and being able to play stuff to him and hear him respond.”

Express.co.uk was in attendance at the recent Star Fleet Sessions album launch held at Abbey Road Studios, where the Queen legend was asked about his most vivid memories of working with Van Halen and that’s when he got onto the drinking.

Sir Brian shared: “The most outstanding memory I have of Ed is drinking with him after his show. He was an expert at drinking…and I thought, ‘Yeah I can do this.’

“The next thing I remember I was on the floor in his bathroom having smashed my head on the sink… I was a lightweight… but we had fun!”

Brian May + Friends: Star Fleet Sessions is out now.