23 January 2024 , 12:07
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Freddie Mercury had an "extraordinary" way of treating A-listers such as David Bowie.
His relationship with other artists has been revealed by his former bodyguard Walt 'Wally' Versen, who also acted as an assistant for the late Queen legend. Wally worked with Freddie and his bandmates, Sir Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. But despite the band being one of the biggest names across the world, lead singer Freddie remained grounded.
According to Wally, there appeared to be a secret pact between Freddie and his musician friends before attending one another's concerts and how they managed to work around their schedules and tight-knit security teams.
Freddie Mercury's former security has opened up about his bond with David Bowie (Redferns)
Bowie and Mercury were friends before becoming famous (Getty Images)"Fred gave me my first lessons in how stars treat each other," he said, before going on to tell Express.co.uk: "I had become the sort of assistant tour manager. So I said, 'What do you want me to do?' And Fred gently put his hand on me and said, 'Nothing yet.' I looked at him bewilderedly and he said, 'David knows I'm going to be in town. When David calls to invite me to the show then…y'know.'
"And that happened two days later. There were rules. And then I was able to make that happen. This how is how stars treat each other. It's like working in the White House. David will invite and when David invites, then you call David’s guy. Instead of me calling David’s guy, David had to invite first. Extraordinary. That kind of stuff happened a lot."
Sarah Michelle Gellar shares major throwback with 'epic' superstar David Bowie
In a new movie, titled Queen Rock Montreal, Walt details his experience with the legendary band. The movie opens with Queen on a flight to New York ahead of their first performance, with David Bowie – who was a friend of Freddie's from before he was famous.
The pair who previously teamed up for the hit song Under Pressure became friends after Freddie was left blown away by David after he performed a lunchtime set at Ealing Art College. It was reported that Freddie had even offered to help David set up his stage, carry his equipment and also assist with other tasks.
Later, after leaving college, Freddie and his Queen bandmates went on to work on a market stall at Kensington Market, selling vintage clothing to manage their finances before their music career took off. But before both of them hit the jackpot, Freddie went on to give a pair of vintage boots to David that he wasn't able to buy.