Coachella 2025: Benson Boone mocks crowd with cardboard cutout of Brian May

Posted On April 19, 2025April 19, 2025

Pop-rock singer Benson Boone brought out a special guest for his Coachella set on April 18th, a cardboard cut-out of Queen guitarist Brian May.

This comes only a week after the real Brian May joined Boone for an electric rendition of the huge hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ on April 11th. Boone previously addressed the lukewarm crowd reaction to the rock icon’s appearance in a TikTok video of himself with a banana attempting to rile the crowd up at the festival.

He captioned the post: “Me trying to get the crowd at Coachella to understand what an absolute legend Brian May is and the cultural impact he has on music and THE WORLD.”

For his second set, Boone waited for the climax to reveal the cut-out. As he sang, “I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all,” the cardboard cutout was featured while guitarist ​​Sus Vasquez played the first guitar solo.

“Brian May,” the singer jokingly declared, before proceeding to grab the cutout during the bridge of the song.

May was reportedly in on the spectacle. “I would like to let you all know, on Brian’s behalf, he would’ve loved to have been here, but he unfortunately had to fly out so, we came up with that idea and he sends his love,” Boone told the crowd as he finished his set with his popular song ‘Beautiful Things’.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm from the Coachella crowd, the Queen guitarist gushed about the initial experience on social media afterwards, as it marked one of May’s few public appearances since suffering a minor stroke last year. He wrote: “I’m still reeling from last night at Coachella. Thanks to all of you folks who made it feel so special — you know who you are !!!!”

Boone isn’t the only artist to bring out a special guest during Coachella. PC musician AG Cook brought out Kesha to sing ‘Yippee-Ki-Yay’ on April 18th. Meanwhile, Lorde, Billie Eilish and Troye Sivan previously appeared in Charli XCX’s first set.

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