Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx has revealed that Freddie Mercury wrote an iconic guitar riff for Queen, according to Brian May.
He told Louder Sound, “This was such an important song for me. My friends and I had already discovered the first Queen album and marveled at all those amazing melodies and chord progressions that were unlike anything we’d ever heard.
“But when we dropped the needle on ‘Ogre Battle,’ it was the most mind-blowing moment for me, because of how it mixed the coolest, hardest rock riffs and the most extreme, beautiful melodies.
“Brian May once told me that Freddie Mercury wrote that guitar riff, which I didn’t know. It’s hard as shit to play!
“But when you really study Queen’s music you get such an incredible education in the art of songwriting.”
He also discussed Black Sabbath’s 1972 classic track “Snowblind.”
“As teenagers when we wanted to hang out with the older, cooler kids, we’d walk a couple of miles to a pizza place that sold beers, and we’d smoke a little pot out back, and listen to them talk about music and girls.
“At a point this song just totally captured my imagination. There was a jukebox in there, and I remember I’d keep putting my 10 cents in to hear this over and over again.
“It’d get to the point where people would be like, ‘Don’t play that song again!’ This reminds me of that time, of being a young, hungry musician impatient to make my own mark.”
