Queen as a five piece

Queen as a five piece (not including spike or Morgan)
I remember reading that Queen looked into getting a fifth member in the early days. How close did they get? Was it just a fleeting idea or did they actually put up a vacancy?
How would Queen have sounded as a five piece? What impact could it had for Queen as a band, albums and the make up? Would it ment more solos live from Brian, maybe some duel lead guitar....? or John taking more of a step back into the background, not having to step into that gap to fill in for Brian.... that's assuming that it was a rytham guitar.... As a pianist/keyboardist..... would we still have piano ballads that both Freddie and Brian brought to the band?

It would've disrupted the timeline. We wouldn't have anything we consider pivotal to their success. Album covers would be different! A 5 piece would look clumsy and I'm sure the chemistry being different would've meant a revolving line up.

Musically - who knows. The vision of the band was strong so it hinges on the strength and vision of the 5th member. Would they happily ride along? Would they have an equal vote and veto ideas and songs? The point of the 4 piece was they made do and became better due to their limitations - Freddie's piano playing, Brian's creative use of delay. An additional backing vocal would've been great but the chances of them fitting perfectly in the sound they already had would be slim.

Good question.