Queen’s Brian May Says He ‘Could Have Died’ After Suffering Heart Attack

It would be bad enough to accidentally rip your buns to shreds “in a moment of over-enthusiastic gardening” during quarantine, but then to suffer through a heart attack? Queen guitarist Brian May has had a hell of a month, health-wise, and that’s not even considering there’s a pandemic on. According to a video posted Monday to May’s Instagram, the musician’s gardening catastrophe a few weeks ago inadvertently disguised an extremely painful pinched sciatic nerve affecting his leg. Then, while May was working with doctors to locate the source of his distress, he also suddenly had a “small heart attack.”

“I thought I was a very healthy guy,” the musician explains. “But I turned out to have three arteries that were congested and in danger of blocking the supply of blood to my heart.” May received three stents and is fully recovered, but he warns fans to be diligent about their heart health. “I thought I was a very healthy guy,” he muses. “Everyone says, ‘You’ve got great blood pressure. You’ve got a great heart rate.’ And I keep fit, I bike, good diet.”

“I could have died from that, from the blockages that were there,” concludes May. “Anyway, I didn’t die, I came out. and I would have been full of beans, if it weren’t for the leg. I’ve only just got to the point where the leg is kind of livable.” You can watch his full video below.