How Brian May Got Briefly Suspended From Instagram
Queen’s Brian May has found himself in the midst of an odd Instagram battle.
Apparently, his account has been suspended due to a copyright violation, which the guitarist claims was inadvertent. In a post explaining the situation, May writes that, “I’m usually very careful to credit anyone whose photos I post — but in this case, at the end of the day, I must have forgotten.”
But May did express anger that the photographer in question, Barbara Kremer, did not reach out to him directly but rather reported the violation to Instagram, which disabled his entire account in addition to removing her photo of May.
“What an incredibly unfriendly act from you, Barbara!” May writes. “You not only took my picture and are evidently exploiting my image, and making money off me without so much as a ‘by your leave’ — but you actually stop me using a picture of myself! What a crazy world we live in these days. All I can say is that if you feel you were ‘violated,’ I feel pretty violated myself. To the point where if I ever discover that you are at one of our concerts in future, look out, because, logically, I would be tempted to have you thrown out.”
May has taken some criticism in response about what his Instagram followers feel was a too harsh attack on Kremer.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
