Queen‘s Brian May has revealed ex-bassist John Deacon “still has a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ say” in the band.

The guitarist made the revelation to Mojo in a new interview, where he told them Deacon still had input in Queen’s decisions – despite Deacon officially retiring in 1997 (and having only performed periodically with the band since Freddie Mercury‘s death in 1991).

“John still has a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ say,” he told Mojo. “We get messages that he’s happy with what we’re doing, but he doesn’t want the stress of being involved creatively, and we respect that.

“Freddie [Mercury] we can’t talk to, sadly. But the four of us worked as a team for so long that Roger [Taylor] and I have a pretty good idea what our fellow Queen members would be saying. This thing is longer that anybody’s marriage.”

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(L to R) Roger Taylor, Freddie Mercury, Brian May and John Deacon of Queen (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)

Recently, Taylor has been teasing new Queen music to come, which will be their first new material after 30 years.

The legendary band posthumously released their 15th and final studio record, ‘Made In Heaven’, in 1995 following the death of frontman Freddie Mercury in 1991, and shared a rediscovered track featuring Mercury’s vocals, ‘Face It Alone’, in October 2022.

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The drummer made the comments in a new interview with Uncut (via Music News), where he responded to a question asking if Queen might record new music.

“I think we might,” he responded. “Brian [May] and myself were talking the other day, and we both said that if we feel we have some good material, why not? We can still play. We can still sing. So I don’t see why not.”

In other news, Queen have announced a newly mixed, mastered, expanded reissue of their self-titled debut album.

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