Brian May's Red Special

Book excerpt: Get the full story behind the Red Special, Brian May's hand-built guitar--a unique instrument that helped make May's musical dreams come true. In 1963, Brian May and his father Harold started to build the Red Special--an electric guitar meant to outperform anything commercially made. Here, Brian talks about of his one-of-a-kind instrument, from its creation on. He played it on every single Queen album and during the band's amazing shows: the roof of Buckingham Palace, Live Aid, the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics . . . and beyond. Along with original diagrams, sketches, and notes, May has included a great selection of photographs of himself with the guitar--which was fully dismantled so it could be shot-- as well as close-ups and X-rays.