As we mentioned before, Mercury was a big lover of cats. He lived with nearly 10 cats, which he loved dearly, and even dedicated an album to, “Mr. Bad Guy”. So, maybe this next bit of information won’t be so surprising by now, but still, we found it worth mentioning.
According to some of his closest friends, every time Freddie went on tour, he would call his house once a day and ask whoever was watching the cats, to put them on the phone one by one so they could hear his voice. Such a legend!
An Epic Send-Off
The first case of AIDS in the US was in April 1980. Seven years later, Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with the disease, and after his death in 1991, he became the first major rock star to die of an AIDS-related complication.
This helped shine a light and raise awareness for the terrible disease that took the U.S. by storm in the 1980s. AIDS had been a taboo subject and as an issue, had been ignored for years. Mercury’s bandmates decided to plan a concert in their friend’s honor, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness. Some of the biggest artists in the history of rock and roll and pop performed live at the event. Including David Bowie, Elton John, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Spinal Tap, George Michael, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, and more. Elizabeth Taylor gave an intense AIDS prevention speech.
Freddie Wrote “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” In The Bathtub
One of Queen’s most famous songs, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, came about in the most unexpected of ways. In the summer of 1979, Mercury was in a luxurious hotel in Munich, recording The Game studio album, when he decided to take a bath.
Within minutes, he tells the story of how he got a tune stuck in his head and he instantly knew that it had to be written down. He quickly got out, wrapped a towel around his waist, and asked Queen’s head of road crew to give him an acoustic guitar. Mercury played the tune and wrote a song in “five to ten minutes”, as he puts it. Turned out, he was right to be so hasty, as that little tune was “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”!
A Man Like No Other
By 1990, Queen had started to work on a new album, Innuendo. But by this time, Freddie had been battling AIDS for some time and was in the last stages of the illness, barely being able to even walk. When May wrote “The Show Must Go On”, he wasn’t sure Freddie would be able to sing at all, but as we already know, we’re not talking about a regular human being here. Mercury recorded the powerful vocals in a single, breathtaking take.
Freddie was so ill by then, that the video for the song was basically a montage of old footage from the band’s live performances, and he only appears briefly, shooting down a shot of vodka and saying, “I’ll fucking do it, darling”. And he certainly did.
Freddie And Star Wars
It is said that Freddie wasn’t a huge fan of fantasy or sci-fi, but in 1980, he did a particularly odd show of support for the genre.
This was the year when Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was about to be released, and during a concert one night, Mercury decided to show his excitement for the groundbreaking sci-fi classic by singing “We Will Rock You” while sitting on the shoulders of a roadie that was dressed as Darth Vader! How we wish someone would’ve filmed this.