Today marks the 70th birthday of Queen bassist John Deacon, who retired from the music industry in 1997. The former rock star now lives a quiet life in south-west London, while Brian May and Roger Taylor continue to perform as Queen. The duo have not seen John in years, but both wanted to wish him a happy birthday today.
Brian posted a portrait of John playing his bass, painted by Nenu Arts, on Instagram.
The 74-year-old Queen guitarist captioned it: “Happy Birthday Deacy !!! And thanks for this beautiful portrait of him @nenu_ph —— Bri.”
While Roger shared a picture of himself with John during Queen’s heyday on his Instagram stories. The 72-year-old Queen drummer simply wrote: “Happy birthday John.”
Express.co.uk has previously spoken with Brian and Roger about when they last saw John and their business relationship with him today as a fellow member of the Queen family.
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Roger said: “No we don’t actually [stay in touch]. John has sort of consciously excluded himself from the world.
“He doesn’t like engaging in contact with anybody I think. I think he’s very fragile and we respect that. Although he’s still obviously our sort of business partner in a way; our silent business partner.
“He enjoys the financial rewards, but he really doesn’t want anything to do with the music industry anymore. I don’t think he feels he wants to handle it and all the stuff that goes with it. So no we don’t keep in touch actually.”
The Queen drummer says he remembers the last time he saw John was in the bar at the We Will Rock You musical around 2004.
Brian revealed how their deal is that if they don’t hear back from John then he’s agreed to their decision.
The 74-year-old said: “If we do hear back he’ll have some strong opinion and we’ll take notice. So he’s very much part of the team, he’s just a quiet part of the team – which in a sense, he always was, to be honest. He’s quiet until that moment that he really speaks up and then you have to listen.”
Asked if John often communicates back with a disagreement, the Queen guitarist admitted he does every now and then.
Brian said: “Occasionally, yeah, occasionally because it’s a very tightly knit family, the Queen family. And that includes Freddie’s estate; we’re still very much bound up the four of us and that can’t really change.”