Time & Perspective Quote by Brian May

May’s line is a small act of rebellion against the museum that rock stardom eventually becomes. When a band gets canonized, every interview turns into the same ritual: confirm the legend, retell the anecdotes, bless the merchandise. He’s admitting he opted out of that script for a while, not because he hates Queen, but because nostalgia can turn an artist into a docile tour guide of his own past.

The key word is “fossil,” a deliberately harsh image for something fans often frame as “legacy.” Fossils are valuable, sure, but inert: admired behind glass, handled by curators, stripped of risk. May’s fear isn’t irrelevance so much as being treated like an artifact whose best work is safely over. That’s a uniquely modern anxiety for musicians who survive their era: the culture wants you “back,” but only in the most controlled way, repeating the hits, reenacting the myth, staying on-brand.

“Alive and relevant” reads like a plea for present tense. It hints at the tension between gratitude and suffocation: Queen is both his triumph and the headline that can swallow every other identity (scientist, activist, solo musician, just a person aging in public). The “for a time” softens the stance, suggesting he’s not renouncing the past so much as demanding room to change. It’s a reminder that honoring a legacy should not require embalming the people who built it.