It’s pretty safe to say that there would be no Queen without Freddie Mercury. But there was a time when Brian May questioned the decision to have him join.
During his appearance on The Red Special Guitar Podcast he said, “When we first worked with him, it was a little unnerving because he did a lot of running around the place and screaming his head off. So we thought, ‘Is this going work?’
“And not everybody liked him, I’ve got to say. A lot of people found him kind of abrasive – but they all thought he was interesting and entertaining. At that point, though, he wasn’t the singer that we all got to know as Freddie Mercury.”
But, Mercury did have some positive traits.
“We went into the studio, and… as soon as Freddie heard his voice coming back, he went, ‘Oh, I don’t like it. I’m gonna do that again’. And he would go back and back and back, until he got it the way he wanted it. So he became, instantly, very aware of what he sounded like, and incredibly quickly fashioned himself into the singer he wanted to be.
“It probably went on for ever. Every time we were going to make a new album, Freddie would push himself further.
“He would hear himself come back, and he would say, ‘No, I want to do better, longer, more passion, more –’ whatever it was… He was always looking for new textures, and looking to get more out of himself.”
And, May and the band were very supportive.
“We did help. Every time one of us [were] in the studio, the rest of us [were] in the control room. So a lot of the time, I’m sitting… and Freddie’s doing a vocal, and he goes, ‘How’s that?’
“And I go, ‘Well, we kinda like that bit but we didn’t like…’ So we helped him to build what works. And the same the other way round; I’d be doing a guitar solo and so often Freddie was there, going, ‘Well, that’s alright, but…’ We’d be pushing each other the whole time.”
REUTERS PHOTO
