Benson Boone slams Coachella crowd after deadpan response to Brian May guest appearance

Pop singer Benson Boone has taken aim at the Coachella crowd after a massive guest appearance was met with crickets.

Somewhere between the smoke machines, overpriced acai bowls, and a thousand ironic cowboy hats, genuine rock royalty stepped onto the Coachella stage this weekend — and the crowd barely flinched.

Pop balladeer Benson Boone, 22, had pulled off what he assumed to have been a generational moment. Toward the end of his debut Coachella set, out walked Brian May, the renowned guitarist of Queen.

Together, they launched into Bohemian Rhapsody, followed by Boone’s own hit Beautiful Things.

It should have been a seismic event. Instead, it mostly washed over the glittered crowd.

After his initial solo, May was brought back under the stage before he came back out and jammed alongside Benson and his guitarist Sus Vasquez.

At the end of the song, Boone jumped on top of the grand piano before hurdling over May.

“Please give it up for Queen guitarist Brian May,” Boone said to the packed Southern California desert before bowing down to the rocker.

The guitarist remained on stage for Boone’s award-winning single Beautiful Things.

Boone later posted a TikTok capturing his own attempts to hype the audience, flailing a banana around pretending it was a microphone, before giving up and chucking it over his shoulder.

“Me trying to get the Coachella crowd to understand what an absolute legend Brian May is,” he wrote.

May had teased the performance with a series of Instagram posts plugging Boone’s set later in the evening.

“Gonna treasure this moment on the plane with @bensonboone – a truly golden 22 year old prodigy. I’m proud and happy to say we are now officially pals,” May wrote alongside a photo of the two musicians.

In September, May revealed that he had suffered a “minor stroke” a week earlier and had feared his “little health hiccup” had ended his illustrious music career.

“I’m here to bring you some good news — the good news is that I can play guitar after the events of the last few days,” May said in the Instagram video posted September 4, 2025.

“I say this because it was in some doubt because that little health hiccup that I mentioned happened about a week ago and what they called it was a minor stroke. It was a little scary, I have to say.”

Toward the end of his debut Coachella set, out walked Brian May, the renowned guitarist of Queen.

US singer songwriter Benson Boone. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)

He said his inability to move his arm came “out of the blue” during the health scare.

May’s condition eventually improved with his wife, Anita Dobson, sharing that he had “stabilised” and returned to playing music, especially the piano.

“I just hope we don’t have any more reoccurrence,” Dobson told the Mirror in December.

Dobson returned to publicly speaking about her husband Thursday, declaring he was “back to his old self.”

“He’s very well now. I’m very happy to say, thank you both for asking,” she revealed on Good Morning Britain.

— with the New York Post

Originally published as Benson Boone slams Coachella crowd after deadpan response to Brian May guest appearance