The legendary Queen guitarist Brian May recently talked about being named the greatest guitarist of all time on a UK fan poll. He added that guitar playing is not a “competition” and that Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain was a great example of a musician who truly understood that.

Brian May talks about Kurt Cobain

May has recently had a rare honor bestowed upon him when he was officially knighted by King Charles this March 14 for May’s services to music and charity.

Brian May chalked up another impressive achievement in January, when readers of UK’s Total Guitar ranked him at No.1 on the magazine’s list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Asked what it feels like to be singled out among so many guitar greats in history during a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show”, May said:

The Queen guitarist went on, arguing that guitar playing shouldn’t be thought of as competition, which is something he says Kurt Cobain understood perfectly well:

“I don’t think any guitarist should feel like they have anything to prove. It’s not a competition. Kurt Cobain is a great example. There’s not a lot of technical stuff there, and he didn’t work that hard at being technical, and yet he gives us a legacy of some of the greatest guitar music of all time.

“So it’s not about technique. It’s about what you put into it and what you feel and how that feeling gets across in your guitar playing.”