Almost 27 years after the death of Queen frontmanFreddie Mercury, he continues to be an enigma.
Mercury, who died from complications of AIDS in 1991, is at the center of a Queen biopic that touches on his life — and shocking death at the age of 45.
Born Farrokh Bulsara in Tanzania in 1946, Mercury was an intensely private person who rarely granted interviews to reporters.
Even as he faced intense scrutiny from the press beginning in 1986 when rumors circulated he had been tested for HIV/AIDS, Mercury kept his health concerns to himself and closest friends.
Around that time, Mercury denied he had tested positive for the disease.
Freddie Mercury.Phil Dent/Redferns
In one of his last public appearances, a gaunt Mercury joined band members Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon on stage at the 1990 Brit Awards in London, where they accepted the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
While the “Don’t Stop Me Now” singer continued to battle his illness in private, he didn’t stop working. In May 1991, a very thin Mercury was featured in the Queen music video “These Are the Days of Our Lives” in what would be his final video for the band.
The foursome traveled to a studio in Montreux, Switzerland where their final recording as a band with Mercury was made.
“We all knew there wasn’t much time left,” May toldThe Telegraphin 2013. “Freddie wanted his life to be as normal as possible. He obviously was in a lot of pain and discomfort.”
May added, “For him, the studio was an oasis, a place where life was just the same as it always had been. He loved making music, he lived for it.”
George Wilkes/Hulton Archive/Getty
Toward the end of his life, all Mercury wanted was peace.
The singer might have wanted to be left alone from the press, but he continued to be hungry for more music.
“He just kept saying, ‘Write me more. Write me stuff. I want to just sing this and do it and when I am gone you can finish it off.’ He had no fear, really,” May recalled.
Mercury returned to London in early November 1991 telling his bandmates, “I’m not feeling that great, I think I should call it a day.I’ll finish it when I come back, next time,”as May recounted.
The “Somebody to Love” singer never returned.
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“However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease,” he said.
“My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews,” Mercury continued. “Please understand this policy will continue.”
The very next day, on Nov. 24, Mercury died at his home in Kensington. Mourners created a shrine to the singer outside his home with graffiti messages lining the outside wall of the house after his death.
May toldThe Telegraphhe couldn’t believe the news when he heard it.
John Rodgers/Redferns
“We were all wondering if it was an illusion and he was going to be cured,” he said. “You can’t really take these things in properly. Then we got the phone call.”
“It was surreal,” May explained. “Even though we had been preparing for such a long time, it still didn’t feel possible.”
The remaining members of Queen honored Mercury at a benefit concert held in April 1992 at Wembley Stadium for an audience of about 72,000.
Elton John, David Bowie, George Michael, Seal, Annie Lennox, Robert Plant, Axl Rose and Slash, as well as Liza Minnelli and others performed at the benefit concert in which the proceeds went to the launch of The Mercury Phoenix Trust, an AIDS charity organization.
The biopic of Queen is in theaters Friday.
source: people.com
