Deacon joined his first band, The Opposition, in 1965 at the age of 14. The band played covers of chart hits; Deacon played rhythm guitar using an instrument he bought with money borrowed from the group's founder, Richard Young. He switched to bass the following year after the original bassist was fired for not improving his playing as much as the other members. Deacon also acted as the band's archivist, taking clippings from newspapers of even the advertisements featuring The Opposition. After being in the band for four years, not long after the group cut an
acetate of three songs, Deacon played his final concert with the band (then called The Art) in August 1969. Later in the year, he briefly formed a band called Deacon that made one live appearance at Chelsea College. In early 1971, Deacon was introduced to Taylor and May by a friend at a disco who told him that they were in a band that had just lost its bassist. A couple of days later he auditioned in a lecture room at
Imperial College London and became the last member of Queen to join. Deacon was the youngest member of the band. Deacon played his first show with Queen at the College of Estate Management in Kensington in June. On Queen's
first album (1973) he was credited as "Deacon John", to make him "sound more interesting". He asked to be credited under his real name, which was done on all albums from
Queen II (1974) onwards. , Dublin on 22 November 1979 Deacon's first writing credit came on Queen's third album,
Sheer Heart Attack (1974). He wrote "Misfire", a Caribbean-themed song on which he played almost all guitar parts, and co-wrote "
Stone Cold Crazy" with the rest of the band. He also played some guide guitar parts on the album, as May was hospitalised with
hepatitis when recording started. His second song, written for his fiancée Veronica, "
You're My Best Friend", was featured on the group's fourth album,
A Night at the Opera (1975), and went on to be an international hit. Subsequently, Deacon tended to write one or two songs for every Queen album, until
The Miracle (1989) and
Innuendo (1991), which credited the band as a whole. He wrote the hit "
Another One Bites the Dust" (1980) as a dance song based on his early love of soul. The song saw radio play on both black and white US music stations, quickly becoming one of the band's best-selling singles. Deacon would collaborate with Mercury throughout the early 1980s, helping push the band's musical direction towards a lighter disco sound. Deacon's collaboration with Mercury culminated in the release of the band's 1982 album
Hot Space. He played rhythm guitar on the opening "Staying Power" because of his soul and Motown-influenced style, and insisted on playing guitar on his own composition "
Back Chat", not allowing May to play any guitar solos because the style did not fit what Deacon wanted; this led to an acrimonious argument between the two. "Back Chat", and the album as a whole, would prove commercially unsuccessful, leading to the band returning to their rock roots in subsequent albums. By the mid-1980s Deacon had started to play with other bands as well. He performed on the single "Picking Up Sounds" by Man Friday & Jive Junior, a
supergroup also featuring
Thin Lizzy's
Scott Gorham,
Bad Company's
Simon Kirke and
Mick Ralphs, and
The Pretenders'
Martin Chambers and played with The Immortals, which released the track "No Turning Back" as part of the soundtrack to the film
Biggles: Adventures in Time. Deacon considered his songwriting to be of equal importance to his musical skills in Queen. He later said: "If I'd just been a bass player all my life with the band, I wouldn't be as satisfied ... I only consider that as part of what I do". ==Retirement==