Queen's Brian May recalls writing huge hit song during toilet visit

Inspiration can come at any time

Brian May and a toilet

Author: Scott ColothanPublished 10th Aug 2021
Last updated 10th Aug 2021

Queen legend Brian May says he wrote most of his 1991 song ‘Driven By You’ while visiting the toilet at a luxury Los Angeles hotel.

Celebrating the reissue of his debut solo album ‘Back to the Light’ last Friday (6th August), Brian May recent caught up with Absolute Radio’s Leona Graham for a wide-ranging chat.

Towards the end of the interview, Brian shed light on how he wrote his 1991 anthem ‘Driven By You’. The lead single from ‘Back to the Light’ stormed in at Number 6 in the UK upon its release and it was written specifically for a Ford Motor Company advert.

Explaining the songwriting process, Brian told Leona that it all started when he was on a break in California with his wife Anita Dobson and they struck up a friendship with two men.

Brian said: “Me and Anita are there just having a very brief holiday in Los Angeles sitting around a pool at Sunset Marquis and there's a couple of gay guys there chattering away and having a big laugh. So much so that we thought ‘these guys are great’ and we got friendly with them.

“One of them was Peter Harrison, who at the time was the head of marketing of a big firm, but a most lovely guy and he says ‘Brian, you've done all these things. Have you ever done music for an advert?” And I went ‘no’. He said, ‘do you want to?’ and I went ‘I'm not sure I do really. I just like making music that's in my head.’ He said ‘well, let me just throw something at you. What if I said, our campaign slogan is “everything we do, we do for you.” And I went ‘Yeah, I could hear that. I could relate to that.’

“So, we chatted a bit more and then… he was on the phone for a while and when he came back he went, ‘Sorry I told you wrong, actually the slogan is “everything we do is driven by you.” And I thought ‘driven by you, I can hear that already. It has a rhythm; it has a power that I can use and I can relate to it in my head because I have to write on more than one level.’

“I could feel it as a slogan for them. It's a car company. But for me it was also underneath it a slogan about how I feel about life and relationships. In a relationship very often you get to this point where you feel that everything is driven by the other person. And it can be it can be great, or it can be uncomfortable, whatever.”

Brian continued: “The song was there in essence in my head, and I could hear it. It's one of those moments. So, in those days – it’s before iPhones and everything – I had my tiny cassette recorder there, which I would sing into or talk into.

“So, I went off to the bathroom and sang the song into it - ‘driven by you’ - I could hear it. That was I think about 50% of the song was written at that moment and I could hear the whole thing. It doesn't happen very often with me but that was a very different (moment).

“I came back from my visit to the bathroom and said ‘I think I've written the song for you’ and he went ‘great, we'll do that.’ It was a lovely little adventure for me and I finished the promotion for the car company pretty quickly, played all the instruments myself - strangely enough Cozy (Powell, late-great drummer) wasn’t on that because there just wasn't time, although I put him on later. But I had the song and I played it to them and they loved it. They immediately did this huge campaign. I wish they’d do it again really!”

You can watch Brian May’s full interview with Leona Graham below where they also discuss what Freddie Mercury said about Brian’s solo career before he died and also why ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ is the hardest song Brian has ever written.

Watch Brian May chat to Absolute Radio’s Leona Graham:

You can also watch the first part of Leona Graham's interview with Brian May where he also reflects upon Queen's 50th anniversary and the private side of Freddie Mercury:

The first instalment of The Brian May Gold Series, the remastered version of Brian May's 'Back to the Light' is out now.