Queen guitarist Brian May has revealed that his new gin is named after his famous guitar, The Red Special, as a tribute to his late father Harold, who helped him build it. The drink, created with Portobello Road Distillery, was officially launched at their Notting Hill Ginstitute on October 8.
Homespun tribute to his father
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk after addressing the crowd at the event, May confessed he never wanted to put his own name on the bottle. Instead, he chose to name it after the guitar because his father built it with him, making it a "homespun" project he wanted to reflect.
Asked how his dad Harold, who died at the age of 66 on June 2, 1991, from cancer, would feel about their father-and-son project becoming world famous and now inspiring a drink, May said: "I think of my dad all the time because he would love it.
"You know all those hours that we put in in his little spare bedroom, which was his workshop in our house in Felton for two years, it was more than either of us could have dreamed that the guitar would go all around the world many times with Queen, with me, and now it's gone into other areas.
"So the fact that this gin is named after it is something special to me because it commemorates the homespun nature of our guitar."
Personal touches and creative spirit
Pointing to his surroundings, he continued: "You can see what this place is like. It's very kind of homey, and it's a cottage industry, if you like. And that's the way it was with me and my dad.
"To me, it's all about excellence that you do personally," he added. "It's not about big sales or big corporations. It's about making something that you believe in, and you put your heart and soul into it, make it as good as it can be.
"And you want to make something that has never been made before, and that's what kind of keeps me going. That's why I still do projects. That's why I don't golf or something and forget about it. I want to be creative. I love to create at least part of it.
"I never thought I'd be making gin. Never. It wasn't on my horizon. But in 1972, it wasn't on my agenda to play Madison Square Garden. You come across these doors open and you walk through.
"And to me, if it's creative and it's different, then it's worth having a really good look," he smiled.
A homemade guitar and a homespun gin
May echoed this sentiment in his speech to the intimate gathering, who were treated to cocktails created using the gin. "My guitar was not a Fender or a Gibson something very sort of worldwide. It was a little homemade thing that me and my dad treated as a project when I was 17 years old," he told them.
"That's my guitar that I've taken all around the world many times. It's homemade. It's completely personal to me. And this is the same. This is a very homespun, very London, very British gin."
In keeping with his homespun ethos, May has added personal touches to the gin recipe, including calamansi orange, which he grows himself in his greenhouse. He has also included an exclusive collectible Brian May sixpence with each bottle. For decades, he has used a sixpence as his signature guitar pick and even released several ranges of Brian May collectible sixpences, beginning in 1993.
The Red Special gin can be pre-ordered from the Portobello Distillery website now.
