“It was f**king worth it”: Nuno Bettencourt says Extreme “got into a lot of trouble” performing Queen songs against orders at Freddie Mercury tribute concert
Nuno Bettencourt has opened up about the time Extreme “got into a lot of trouble” for performing Queen songs against official orders at a Freddie Mercury tribute concert in the 90s.
Held on 20 April 1992 at London’s iconic Wembley stadium, the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness was organised to honour the late Queen frontman and raise awareness for AIDS, the disease that claimed his life.
Artists like Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Def Leppard were invited to perform quick sets, but were instructed not to play any Queen material until the surviving members joined the stage later for an all-star jam. Extreme, though, had other plans.
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“33 years ago, not only was it one of the greatest concerts of my life to be a part of, but when Brian May walked out to introduce us and said ‘more than any other group on the planet, this next band knew what Freddie was all about and what queen were all about’, normally I’d take the humble approach, but that statement was 1000% spot on,” Bettencourt recalls in a new Instagram post.
“On that day we wanted to make sure that not only true Queen fans in that stadium and watching around the world knew what Freddie meant to us, but that more importantly, Freddie, watching down from the heavens, one the greatest composers and rock and roll singers of all time, knew what he meant to us.”
Despite knowing they were breaking the rules, Bettencourt says the members were determined to pay tribute in their own way.
“Yes, we got into a lot of trouble performing all Queen music instead of Extreme songs as no artist were allowed to perform Queen till the all star jam later on with the surviving members, but it was fucking worth it because we needed to let everyone know how much impact Freddie had on us and celebrate the music of Queen that shaped and changed our lives.”
“And the only way to do that was to risk performing a Queen medley for the first time ever,” says the guitarist. “Not very smart… in front of Queen, [David] Bowie, [John] Elton, Guns [N’ Roses], Metallica and the immense talent that were there side stage. But we knew that that would be the only way to rock the house that Queen built, Wembley Stadium.”
It was a move that absolutely paid off, according to Bettencourt: “Having survived it, I can tell you that Freddie was in that building,” he says. “Cause the shivers and lightning shooting right through me during every second of that set was something till this day I’ve never felt again.”
“Thank you to all the Queen fans at Wembley that day for allowing [us] to entertain you. It was an honour, a privilege… A gift for us that we’ll cherish forever.”
“Without every single one of you there that day we couldn’t have celebrated and grieved Freddie’s life without your immense passion for Queen.”
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