Queen guitarist Brian May said the British rock group "weren't making a documentary" when they helped sequence the events portrayed in Bohemian Rhapsody, the Oscar-winning biopic that covers the band's early career led by singer Freddie Mercury before his death in 1991.

Defending the fact that Queen's story isn't explicitly linear in the film, the musician responded to critics "who took issue with the movie's reshuffling of chronological events," as Guitar World put it Monday (June 10).

"We weren't making a documentary," May responded. "It wasn't supposed to be 'This happened, and then this happened.' This was an attempt to get inside Freddie Mercury and portray his inner-life — his drive, his passion, his fears and weaknesses. Also, we wanted to portray his relationship with us as a family, which was pretty much a part of what made him tick."

In the movie, a span of fifteen years is condensed into a digestible onscreen portrayal. All the same, May thinks "Freddie would love it, because it's a good, honest representation of him as a person."

Bohemian Rhapsody ends with Queen's historic performance at 1985's Live Aid, a benefit the guitarist recently surmised could be duplicated to fight climate change. Despite the film's success, the guitarist revealed last month that the band "still haven't earned a penny" of the movie's profits.

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