01 July 2023 , 15:34
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Fifty years on from Queen ’s debut album, Brian May reckons the band would still be rocking the world if Freddie Mercury were still with us
And the guitar legend reveals he still “misses the butterflies” he would feel while watching the flamboyant frontman strut his stuff on stage.
“Freddie was a fantastic mate and a great brother,” he says. “I liked it when he broke the rules, what he said to the audience and the risk he took.
“I am sure if he was here today we would still be doing it and the mothership would still be steaming around the world, because he lived for music and lived for the band – it was his family.”
Bandmates Brian, Freddie, Roger Taylor and John Deacon put out their self-titled first LP on July 13, 1973, on EMI in the UK and Elektra Records in the US.
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Queen with Adam Lambert on vocals (Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)Rolling Stone magazine hailed it as a “superb” debut – even though it only reached No 32 in the charts.
And it set wheels in motion that would see Queen become one of the greatest rock groups of all time with over 300 million in records sold worldwide.
Five decades on –and 32 years after frontman Freddie’s death from AIDS aged just 45 in 1991 – Brian says his memories of his old friend have not faded.
“He was very shy but also very social. He lived to the max every second of the day,” says the 75-year-old. “He is so enduring because he was an eccentric genius.
Brian still misses his old pal (Getty Images)
Brian and Roger (FilmMagic)“He was not a people pleaser. Some may have found him rude but he achieved what he wanted and knew what he was doing.
“I think there was a period where he felt we might disapprove of his sexuality, and the rest of the world might disapprove.
“I know he struggled with it, but he plucked up the courage to be what he wanted to be. He opened up his heart and he gave it everything he had. He was proud of himself as a musician above all else.
“If you look back at the history of rock ‘n’ roll, is Little Richard a man trying to hide the fact he’s gay? No. He screamed his passion. Freddie belongs to that genre.”
Queen after a 1981 tour in Tokyo (Getty Images)Drummer Roger, 73, adds: “Freddie is still around, he is part of our make-up. If he was still around I don’t know if we would be still working but I would hope so. That was part of Freddie’s raison d’etre. I mean what else would we do?”
The remaining original band members have gone on performing with American Idol singer Adam Lambert, 41, providing the vocals since 2011.
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But it was with Freddie at the helm that they built their extraordinary legacy.
Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame, Queen also hold two Brit Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
Queen with Adam Lambert onstage in Birmingham (Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)While the band collected the first one at a 1990 ceremony, the second was presented to Freddie posthumously in 1992.
Despite his band’s success, Brian, married to former EastEnders star Anita Dobson, admits he still suffers impostor syndrome when he thinks about all the music legends Queen have outlived in their phenomenal career.
He says: “I think about young kids who came up behind me. George Michael was kind of a kid to me, like a younger brother.
“And to think he has gone – and people like David Bowie. It is frightening.
“I sometimes think, ‘Why am I still here?’ and ‘What am I meant to be doing?’ But this is what I am meant to be doing. The core of me is still there.
“It is still the same old me inside. I do what I do because it is what I do. I don’t need the money. I don’t need the fame, as I have had quite a lot of that.
“I just want to think my work gets heard and gets to people’s hearts.”