10 Band Members That Are Way More Important Than You Think
9. John Deacon - Queen
When you’re next to someone like Freddie Mercury onstage, you’re bound to get overshadowed. As much as John Deacon may have been a good fit in the early days of Queen, he was always a bit standoffish, never speaking a word in interviews and put on the side next to Mercury’s theatrics or Brian May’s massive guitar licks. Underneath all that quiet energy though was one of the best pop writers of the ‘70s.
As much as Mercury might be the voice of the band, some of the biggest hits that the band ever made actually came from John, giving them one of their biggest American hits with You’re My Best Friend. Alongside songs like Bohemian Rhapsody and Somebody to Love though, Deacon was responsible for bringing off the wall ideas to the table, like the synth driven sounds of I Want to Break Free and accidentally making one of the biggest bass lines of all time on Another One Bites the Dust.
Even on the others’ songs, Deacon is much more nimble than other bass players, always playing around the chord changes and keeping the groove going on songs that would have had no groove to begin with like on Radio Gaga. No one tends to look at the quiet ones all that often, but when it comes to John Deacon, when he does speak, you’d better be listening.