“He was never maudlin, ever”: Brian May reflects on Freddie Mercury’s final days
Queen’s Brian May has recalled Freddie Mercury’s final days before his death in 1991, sharing how he never showed any self-pity despite his health among his continued drive to make music.
Mercury passed away from bronchial pneumonia as a complication of AIDS, and left behind a glowing legacy for his vast vocal range and exuberant stage presence.
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In a conversation with Sammy Hagar shared by AXS TV, May looks back on those last days of making music with him. Hagar says, “You’ve done a better job with the legacy I’ve ever seen than anyone since Freddie’s death and I’m serious, I’ve said it to you before. How’s that work? I mean is there a committee?”
May responds, “Yeah, I suppose there is. What we did was give it up, we actually did give it up when Freddie died and we’d always said if one of us goes, that’s it. Roger and I both went out grieving to the max and saying it’s over, we don’t even want to talk about it for quite a long time, and then we made the last album, the Made In Heaven album with the tracks that Freddie had left us to play with, and it became a real labour of love because he left some lovely little bits and pieces.
“Freddie in his last days was like, ‘okay guys I’m not going to be here long just give me stuff to sing, I’ll sing,’ you know? ‘Write me stuff on the back of a cigarette packet whatever just give me stuff to sing’. So we did a lot of that and then when he’d gone, I mean he was very undramatic about it, he was never maudlin, ever.”
May continues, “I never ever saw him cry or go self-pity. He never did that, he was like, ‘let’s just do it, let’s keep doing stuff.’ Freddie was always inspiring, and if he was here now we’d be doing what we always do I’m sure, but Adam [Lambert, Queen’s current vocalist] brings fresh views on things, [and] he’s not afraid to say, ‘why don’t we try it this way or that way,’ so the songs are not fossils, they’re alive and evolving with Adam which is great.”
You can watch the conversation below.
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