Brian May’s clearest regret about “Under Pressure” has nothing to do with unanswered letters — it was the mix that slipped away

The lore surrounding Queen’s 1981 collaboration with David Bowie on “Under Pressure” is so rich, so myth-filled and so endlessly retold that parts of it have calcified into folklore that fans now repeat as if they are court records.

One claim that occasionally resurfaces in more sensational online retellings — that Freddie Mercury “blocked” future work between David Bowie and Brian May, or that Bowie “never answered 14 letters” — is not a detail supported in primary interviews.

What is supported — repeatedly — in Brian May’s own words — is something far less tabloid and far more human:

he walked away from the mixing process, and he never got the version of the song he hoped would exist.

a once-in-a-lifetime session that became a clash of creative gravity

The session in Montreux began as a jam — four members of Queen and Bowie in the same room — and quickly became a negotiation between two major artistic poles: Mercury and Bowie.

May later described it this way in interviews:

four precocious musicians
plus Bowie — who was “precocious enough for all of us”

May’s preferred version had a much heavier, chord-driven electric foundation — he compared it to The Who — but Bowie moved the final mix toward tight minimalism.

the moment May stepped back

May has said publicly this was the only instance where he deliberately removed himself because he could see that conflict was inevitable and unwinnable:

you can’t have too many powerful creative forces in the same room — something has to give

What “gave” was the guitar weight.

His electric rhythm vanished in the final release.
John Deacon’s bass line became the spine.
May’s contribution was reduced mostly to acoustic textures.

decades later, the feeling remains

May has performed “Under Pressure” live in a much heavier arrangement — closer to his original intention — almost as if reclaiming the version he once imagined.

The so-called tragedy, to him, was not dramatic betrayal — it was watching a creative direction he loved get carved down to something leaner.

the song still became a classic — and the absence is still felt

“Under Pressure” became a landmark record — one of Queen’s most globally recognised moments.

But when May discusses the sessions today, what lingers is not interpersonal scandal — it is the quiet ache of an unrealised draft.

A moment where one of rock’s most inventive guitar voices — in a room full of other giants — chose restraint rather than collision.