John Deacon

Background

John Deacon is music royalty in the world of rock ‘n’ roll. John Richard Deacon was born on August 19, 1951, in Leicester, England. His father, Arthur Henry, worked at the Norwich Union insurance company and his mother, Lillian Molly, was a housewife. He studied at Beauchamp Grammar School in Oadby and achieved good grades. He formed a school band called The Opposition in 1965 but left four years later to pursue his studies in electronics at Chelsea College in London. He originally played rhythm guitar but switched to the bass guitar for which he would become famous.

In 1971, he met Roger Taylor and Brian May and joined the band a few days later as their youngest member. The band released their first album in 1973 and their second and third albums in 1974. Deacon was the lead writer for one of Queen’s most famous songs, ‘Another One Bites the Dust,’ which became instantly popular upon its release in 1980. During the 1980s, he played with several other bands, most notably the supergroup Man Friday & Jive Junior, which featured Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy), Simon Kirke (Bad Company), and Martin Chambers (The Pretenders). He also worked with Freddie Mercury on Mercury’s solo music and fellow English rock star Elton John.

After Mercury died in 1991, Deacon wrote and played less music and he retired in 1997 after playing several more concerts with Queen with Elton John doing vocals. He briefly rejoined the band later that year to record the band’s final song. Since his retirement, Deacon has stayed out of the public eye, declining the invitation to Queen’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2013, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the band’s founding, a new species of damselfly was named after Deacon. May reported that Deacon was happy with Joseph Mazzello’s portrayal of him in the biopic of the band, “Bohemian Rhapsody” (2018) starring Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury.