Queen fans were sent into a frenzy this week after a picture of Brian May up in heaven alongside Charlie Kirk, Freddie Mercury, and Jesus began to circulate online. The viral image, which is believed to have been created through an AI generator, called into question the legendary guitarist’s health. It comes after US influencer Charlie Kirk was shot dead this week at a Utah University rally, which sparked a wave of backlash online in the wake of his passing.

Thankfully, the 78-year-old musician is still alive and thriving despite enduring several health conditions later in life. Last year, the astrophysicist suffered a minor stroke that left him unable to control his left arm or play guitar.

In a video posted to his Instagram account, he explained that he had suffered a “health hiccup” when he was diagnosed with the worrying condition. At the time, he was rushed to the hospital with “blue lights flashing” when he lost the use of his arm.

It didn’t take long before the musician regained the use of his arm and has since gone on to give stellar performances on the main stage. Recalling the terrifying event, he confessed it “was a little scary” but that he “had the most fantastic care and attention from Frimley Hospital”.

But this isn’t the first health issue the rocker has endured. In May 2020, he had a heart attack, which required three stents – short, wire-mesh tubes that act like a scaffold to help keep an artery open – to alleviate the danger of the blood supply being blocked from the heart.

After his recovery, May appeared on Good Morning Britain, where he admitted that he nearly died when he suffered a range of complications, including a stomach haemorrhage as a result of the medication he was taking for his heart.

Elsewhere, the Queen legend has revealed that he has left a “gift to the nation” as he celebrated International Stereoscopy Day on June 21. The musician took to Instagram to share that he has incorporated BMAS – the Brian May Archive Stereoscopy – as a charity and confessed they will be responsible for maintaining his stereoscopy legacy following his death.

Alongside a video explaining what the day is all about, he wrote a lengthy caption in which he included the news. It read: “The Brian May archive of Stereoscopy is now an incorporated charity, which now owns much of my stereoscopic image collection – and when I pass on to the next place, it will own all of it.

“My hope in creating this archive is that it will be able to sustain itself after I've gone, keeping intact the greatest (And only!) archive of stereoscopic photography in Britain. It will be a gift to the Nation.”

Invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone, stereoscopy was hugely popular in the Victorian era. In stereoscopy, two flat images are put together in a special viewer to produce a scene in 3D.