All language subtitles for Imagine The Great Pretender (2012)_en

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Freddie, the engine will be running
in half an...

Half an hour?

- Half a minute.
- Half a minute.

I can get married and divorced in that time.

Shoot, David.

When you face an audience of 300,000 people
like I saw you in Rio,

do you get intimidated
by the size of that crowd?

No the bigger, the better.

In everything.

After making 80 million hits

why does the emperor of rock
want to wear new clothes?

Emperor of rock, come on.

Queen have been together 13 years or so,
and you want to do different things.

I wanted to write a batch of songs
that actually came out

under the name of Freddie Mercury.

It doesn't mean I'm going to finish
with Queen, or whatever.

It's just sort of, a bit on the side.

I probably was very frustrated
not being able to do a solo album

a long time ago, I guess, so I'm putting
everything into every song that I've written.

Well, I think we decided we needed a break,
but I think it was fuelled by Freddie

having a bit of an
itch to do something on his own.

He made it very plain, it wasn't a question of
leaving Queen,

or anything like that. It was just something
he wanted to do and get done.

He also, typically Freddie, I think,

wanted to see how much money
he could make out of it, as well.

It's a track called Mr. Bad Guy
and that's what the album is called,

so I'm happy with that.

- Why is it called Mr. Bad Guy?
- Because it's me.

- Do you miss the rest of the guys?
- No.

Who plays on the album,
are there any surprise guests?

Yeah, me.

I was hoping to use people like Jeff Beck
or Rod Stewart happened to be in town,

he just came in and we started jamming
and we wrote songs together.

Michael Jackson was gonna do a song,
'cause I worked with him before.

And he used to just come and see our shows
at the Forum in LA.

I guess he liked us, and so I got to meet him,
and he kept coming to see us

and then we started talking.

Michael suggested
they might record something together.

So, Freddie went up to Michael's studio and
they started working on a couple of tracks.

When I'm talking to him, I think,
"My God. He's 25, I'm 37.

"Yet he's been in the business almost longer
than I have, because he started that young."

For me, it's sort of quite frightening,
when I'm talking to someone who's 25,

you think of somebody who is 22 or 25
as just been starting out, or whatever,

and I could, sort of, teach him a few tricks.
But not Michael.

They got on well.

Except for the fact that I suddenly got a call
from Freddie, saying,

"Miami, dear, can you get on over here,

"because you've got to
get me out of this studio."

I said, "Well, what is the problem?"
He said, "Well, I'm recording with a llama."

He said, "Michael's bringing his pet llama
into the studio everyday

"and I'm really not used to
recording with a llama

"and I've had enough and I wanna get out."

I think one of the tracks would have been
on the Thriller album, if I had finished it.

But I missed out.

By the time I actually got into recording,

I found that I was doing it all myself,
and then I turned the other way.

And just said,
I want to do it completely myself.

I don't like to write message songs.

I'm not like a John Lennon
or a Stevie Wonder.

I'm into writing songs
about what I feel about.

And basically, what I feel very strongly about
is love and emotion.

And I think my solo album is filled with that.

Michael Jackson
had just finished the Thriller album

and it sold 25 million copies
and CBS were very much awash with money.

So I approached Walter Yetnikoff in New York
and proposed a deal which Walter accepted.

It's actually, I think,
the worst deal he ever did.

CBS. Cock, bollocks and satisfaction.

Freddie was actually getting an advance
for his solo album

which was considerably higher
than EMI were paying Queen.

And therefore, within the band,
when the size of the deal emerged,

there was quite a bit of acrimony
about the fact

that Freddie was getting more money
than Queen were getting.

There is an inward jealousy,
I mean that would happen anyway.

And they're all wondering
and all waiting to see

if my album is going to do better
than the last Queen album.

He liked being in Munich
and being away from it all.

He said once, "This is so wonderful,
I can eat sausage on the street,

"nobody bothers me and I'm totally happy.
I can be a person, just like anybody else."

Not that he would like that too much,
but still.

Do you think, from your stay in Munich...

I've learnt a lot?
All I know is all the swear words.

That means lick my arse.

He took a liking
to how we live together as a family.

Which might have been what he had
wished for when he was younger,

because he was shipped off to school
and he wasn't really

all that close with his parents
for a lot of time.

I was put in an environment where I had
to fend for myself at a very early age.

- You're birthplace was Zanzibar?
- Yes, that's right.

When I was about seven,
I was put in boarding school in India,

so, I went from Zanzibar to India for a while
and then came back to England.

A very upheaval of an upbringing.

Freddie had whatever you're taught
in the choir at school, and that was it.

That was his vocal training.
Everything else came from within him.

I went through art college.
I was going to be a graphics illustrator.

I can paint and do that.

But while I was going through college,
I was very interested in music,

so I joined other bands and I got to know
Brian and Roger.

And then I realized, that through college
I spent more time rehearsing our songs

than doing the other thing.

And I just said, "Look, I'm gonna try
and make money out of this."

Or make a life out of it.

I remember
we were in our management offices,

and Fred just says,
"Oh, by the way, I'm changing my name."

And we said, "Really? What to?"

I'm gonna be Freddie Mercury.

He created this umbrella,
which was like Queen music.

And underneath that, you can pretty much
do anything you wanted.

Each song is in
a different sort of category, really.

From 1920s vaudeville to the real raw
rock and roll to the ballad, to the...

I think when we found we had our first
number one in England,

that was very nice.

We were just checking into one of the hotels,

and we realized that Bohemian Rhapsody
had gone to number one.

The four of us were in a lift, jumping up and
down, and the fucking lift stopped.

So there we are, and I thought, "My God,
here's the number one group in England,

"going to suffocate in this damn lift."

People can't put us into one category.

There's a lot of ingredients
that make up Queen.

And you can't put your finger on it, really.

We all do different things.
They leave me to just the wardrobe, I guess.

They leave me to the wardrobe
and writing the hits.

Now, what happens
when one of them writes a song that...

Do you like the lyrics?
Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

I'm not gonna sit there and say,
"Yes, the song is good." if it's not good.

- Do they come and tell you that, as well?
- Of course, of course they do.

And I tell them to fuck off.

I don't think the music industry
generally understood Freddie.

He was always pushing boundaries.

Changing tack. Keep them guessing.
And keep the public interested.

This used to be my restaurant in the 1970s.

And Freddie would come
and play the piano over there,

along with Elton and, I remember one night,
Cliff Richard was singing.

And Elton playing the piano
and Freddie was singing as well.

It was kind of mad.

When I first met him, he was this guy
who was already a bit of a rock star,

poised to be a major rock star.

And Liza Minelli cabaret soundtracks
playing in the house,

and there's cats everywhere.
So, I thought, kinda doesn't compute.

I had always known him as someone
whose personal interests were beyond rock.

My interests are in what's going on now,
and so it's research.

So I go to the ballet, I go to all the musicals
to find out what's happening.

I want to do interesting things,
and things that I haven't done before.

I knew Sir Joseph Lockwood
who is the Chairman for EMI quite well,

as he was also
the chairman for The Royal Ballet.

He and Freddie took to each other
like ducks to water, it was amazing.

I think Freddie had a general interest
in the ballet,

but Sir Joseph really got him fired up.

He was fascinated by the scale.
I mean, it's quite epic.

And everything
about Freddie's performance was epic.

In 1979, he said to me,

"You've got to come to the Coliseum,
I'm performing with The Royal Ballet."

They asked me,
they actually thought I could dance,

so they actually asked me
to do a charity concert,

and then I realized how I couldn't dance.

He did live vocals to backing track.

Being, sort of, manipulated round the stage
by 18 ballet dancers.

This included that moment
when he had his jump

where he just goes...

He disappeared behind a wall of dancers,

and about 20 seconds later,
they just, sort of, lifted him up.

And there he was wearing
a silver sequin outfit.

As a ballet dancer, I'd be terrible.

But I can kick my legs up real high.

And then at the end, he sang the last line
of the Bohemian Rhapsody

absolutely upside down.

In the early '80s, he was living very much
in the gay circle in New York.

He bought a beautiful apartment
on about the 52nd floor

of 52nd Street, actually, East 52nd Street,
looking over the bridge there.

And he was really living it up.

He was in the bars every night.
He loved Donna Summer.

And that's where
sort of musical influence came from.

We got more publicity
from him growing a moustache

than we would have done
if he'd committed suicide.

It was the height of gay hedonism.

And I think Freddie lived that life
outside of England

where it could be a bit more anonymous
and he wasn't the only one doing it.

Everybody was taking drugs.

So the combination of all those things
and the massive success,

where you start to think you can do anything
and lead any kind of life

without any consequences.

I like to try different things every time.
I'm more into the black kind of thing.

I like more of the disco.
And that's why, in something like Hot Space,

we went off on a limb.

And I said, "Let's just do
some of this black stuff that I liked."

And I sort of forced the other three to do it.

They hate me for it now,
because it didn't sell that much.

Freddie's particularly looking for

a certain sound which sounds good
in a certain kind of club.

It's actually quite painful for me to record
because it was very intense.

And it led to some very inspired moments,

but it also led to some conflicts
which were difficult.

We still fight like kids.

Every time I'm in the same room with Brian,
within five minutes, we sort of...

- Sparks fly.
- Yeah, haven't hit him yet.

But there's still time.

When I got involved with the band,

one of the first things Freddie said was,
"We need to have a personal."

A personal. I said, "What's a personal?"

So I figured out that they needed somebody
to just kind of run out

general dogsbody,
somebody that I could relate to.

So I knew Paul Prenter and I hired him.

Paul Prenter was
an important part of Freddie's life.

He showed Freddie what he could do.

What was available in the nightclubs,
in the club scene.

Prenter was disrupting creative moments,

where something would be actually working
and he would pace up and down

on the side of the control room,

or go looking at the watch, and it's like 7:00,

it's 8:00, it's club time.

He was scoring guys and scoring coke
and scoring opportunities

to get debauchery happening.

The less said about him, the better.

I saw him as a very subversive influence
in the worst possible sense.

I don't see Queen touring
when they're in their 60s.

I won't be with them if they are.
I hope that I'm sleeping.

What Paul Prenter was to Freddie
was his partner in crime.

If there was criticism of him,
he didn't attempt to,

should we say,
curtail or just dampen things down

at various times.

And that would have helped a lot.

The band sort of rejected Paul Prenter.

And so Paul Prenter wanted to take Freddie
away from the band, I suppose,

and to a degree, he did.

Freddie took him on his own payroll

when the band disagreed,
and didn't want him around anymore,

because they didn't think
he was a good influence.

When we toured America, that last time,
it turned out to be the last time,

he was the guy who answered the phone.

So radio stations would phone up,
and he would be the intermediary.

And he was telling everybody
that Freddie wasn't interested,

"Freddie says fuck off", which really
wasn't true most of the time.

But we know now because
that's the information that's come back to us,

so basically, this one person,
who was his personal assistant,

managed to piss off the whole of America.

Being a world famous rock star,
does this make it more difficult

for you to actually keep a friendship going?

Yes, yes, because I think it's harder

for other people to try and understand me
as a normal person.

There must be times
when you do need to turn to someone.

I don't have that many people to turn to,
the only one, if you're talking about it,

is Mary, she's been a girlfriend of mine
for a long time,

and even though we're not together right
now, I refer to her a lot.

When I met him, he was living
with Mary and the cats and Liza.

And I think the most difficult thing for him
was to not hurt Mary.

I wasn't around when they had the talk.

But he was very conscious
of not embarrassing her,

or putting her in any difficult position.

Mary's gone through just about everything.

She's about the only person
I can think about.

Otherwise I just fend for myself and I just...

I cross my hurdles in my own way.

Surely comes a time when
you want to share your life with someone.

Yes, but nobody wants
to share their life with me.

The more I open up, the more I get hurt,

so basically what happens is,
I'm just riddled with scars,

and I just don't want any more.

It's not easy living with me.

In one way, I think

the more mishaps I have,
the better the songs are gonna be.

Once I find somebody,
I can find a long lasting relationship,

bang goes all the research
for wonderful songs.

At the moment, I'm living on past mishaps.

And, having said that,

I don't know,
I don't know what's in store for me.

So the rest of the guys have houses in LA,

I assume you mean
the other members of Queen.

- Yeah, what do you think I meant?
- What are their names again, I'm sorry.

Stop that shit.

It's Brian, Roger and John.

I sometimes forget their names, too.

But you don't really
hang out with them or anything?

No.

They have very different characters
and they like different things,

I like to go to ballet and opera and things,

they don't like all that,
just keep going to rock and roll shows.

He liked listening to Pavarotti's voice.

Just for the control, for the amount
of training that that voice had had.

And just the sound
that he was able to produce.

I said, "Look, why don't you hear him live?"

He says, "Okay, yeah, that's fine."

I got tickets,
we were in the front of the Grand Tier.

And Freddie was..."I like that, he's good."

Act one, scene two,
the soprano gets her bit in.

From the minute the voice started,

Freddie's jaw had just sort of fallen open.

He could not believe what he was hearing.

I was at Covent Garden, the opera house
for a recital by Montserrat Caballe.

Then out of the corner of my left eye,

gesticulating, waving arms, and I look over,
and there in a box seat is Freddie.

And he's leaning up like that,
and he's pointing to the stage

and he's going...

He was just like a 12-year-old kid
seeing The Beatles.

The grin on his face, he was just
so up from that whole show.

He says, "Look, I have now heard
the best voice in the world."

I was in Munich for the playback
of The Mr. Bad Guy album.

And we were all sitting there
in Musicland Studios.

It was a strange playback, 'cause I could tell
that Freddie was slightly bored

and not really listening to it.

And we were halfway through the album

and he suddenly said,
"Switch it off, switch it off,

"I want to play you something else."
And he put on this opera singer singing.

And he said,
that's the most beautiful voice in the world.

"Do you know who it is?" I said, "No."

He said, "Well, that's Montserrat Caballe.

"She has the most beautiful soprano voice
in the world."

And I want to sing with her.

But we're all sitting there
listening to Mr. Bad Guy,

and we looked around and I said,
"Are you serious?"

And he said, "Absolutely." He said, "Go and
find her, and tell her I want to sing with her."

Freddie had some of the best ears
in the business.

And maybe he sat there
at that early stage, thinking,

"This is not gonna work."

Maybe that's why he interrupted and said,
"Let's listen to Montserrat Caballe."

Because he was moving on, I think, already,
sitting in the studios in Munich,

aware that maybe he'd produced an album
that wasn't his greatest work.

Out of the songs
you put out on this album, Freddie,

which one do you find
the most rewarding personally?

Oh, I don't know, the one that sells the most.

I was on the album, actually.

And, sort of, fully supporting him.

But every time I go to Munich, he says,
"Come out and sing some backing vocals."

I go to Munich, and they'll be no further on.

It would be exactly the same
as it was a month before.

It was terrible,
and it just wasn't going anywhere.

I thought, "Well, I've heard this before."

He underestimated the workload,

when Michael Jackson
had three or four number one's

there is probably 60 songwriters
and 900 songs involved.

And he was just doing everything himself.

I would love my album to be
better than the last Queen album,

because that will set a precedent,
and then the next Queen album

we're gonna say, "It had better be better
than Freddie Mercury's solo album."

Unfortunately, the album didn't sell

and so, from CBS' point of view,
it was their worst deal financially

because they paid a lot of money for it.

Freddie always said, "Money is great,
it tells me that I'm successful,

"It tells me that people like my work."

This must have been very odd for him

because he had a lot of money,
which was the advance,

but it wasn't real money
because the record wasn't selling.

Queen fans didn't really like the fact that
Freddie was recording without Queen.

You run the risk of losing your fanbase
when you do that.

You think they'd like you to stay in the
bracket they know you in, and that's that?

They might like to, I don't give a shit,
I do what I want, to be honest.

I don't sit down and say, "Okay, what does
Mary Potsabogner going to buy tomorrow?"

And you can't write songs like that
'cause you can't please everybody anyway.

Freddie didn't like failure
and this album was a failure.

And the fact that it was failure
meant that he moved on instantly.

- So, you will be working with Queen again?
- Yes, definitely.

- Even if...
- Otherwise, I'm gonna be a car mechanic.

He came back slightly, I think,
with his tail between his legs, really.

The next project will be a Queen album,
and soon, I hope, soon.

If we're still talking to each other, that is.

Okay, thanks a lot. Just cut that.

- All right!
- All right!

How does it affect you when
you know that you've won an audience?

I always win an audience.

So, how are you affected then
every night you play to a crowd that big?

Actually, that's part of my role,
I have to win them over,

otherwise, it's not a successful gig.

It's my job to make sure that I win them over

and make them feel
that they've had a good time.

He was just a natural at
communicating with the whole audience.

An amazing thing to watch, actually.

On stage, you give this impression that
you're quite a formidable individual, Freddie.

I am.

I'm very frivolous and I like to enjoy myself
and what better way to do it

than on stage, in front of 300,000 people?

And, you know, I just cook.

He loved it, he thrived on it.

He thrived on that feeling
of contact with the audience

and I think, it came from being a fan.

He was that fan
who sat there and watched Jimi Hendrix

and Jimi Hendrix made that contact with him.

And I think, gave Freddie
the feeling that anything was possible.

It always felt when he was playing,

that you were in on whatever
this amazing kind of camp, ridiculous joke

that some people became quite outraged by.

If you were there in the audience, you knew
that you were one of the chosen few.

And I've seen from two rows away

and I've seen him right from the back,

and you never felt any further or closer
either place,

and I'm not quite sure how he did that.

Everybody looks at me on stage
and they think that's how I am.

Like, arrogant, and that's the way I...

And when you look at me now,
I'm quite boring, really.

A lot of people think that you are reclusive.

- I am a bit, actually. Yes.
- Yeah?

But not in the Greta Garbo way.
It's not, alone-alone.

I like to be alone with my friends
and shut myself off, yes.

I'd hate to be on a desert island.
I'm petrified of being alone.

I am very happy with my relationship
at the moment, and I couldn't ask for better.

So I finally found
a niche that I was looking for all my life.

We first met accidentally, I suppose,
in a club.

He offered to buy me a drink
and I told him to sling his hook basically.

- Did you know it was Freddie Mercury?
- I didn't know who he was, no.

He was just a total, absolute stranger to me.

- Really?
- Yeah.

So then, what happened after that?

I think, some months after that,
I was out at a restaurant

and the friend I was with just happened
to mention, "Guess who's behind you,"

and I said, "Who?" "Freddie Mercury again."

I didn't see Freddie again for,
I think, about 18 months

and I bumped into him in a club.

- And that was it, was it?
- That was it.

Same routine again.
"Let me buy you a drink."

What was he like in real life?
What was he like off stage?

He was quiet, very reserved,

just plain, ordinary,
Joe Bloke on the street, really.

I'm not scared of doing what I want to do.
Before, I had to sort hide in my...

Like, when I went out,
I had to try and perform a little as well

and not letting him down
because Freddie Mercury...

I don't know what it means,
but he had to react in a certain way.

What the press had told the people.

And a lot of the times, I used to do that
so that I was actually living...

In a way, living a false image of myself.

That party in Munich
was really something else.

But it did feel, at the time,
that it was the last hurrah.

It felt that those decadent days were

if not over, winding down.

And it was kind of like
Freddie saying goodbye

to that old, hedonistic lifestyle.

Freddie was tiring of
the rock and roll lifestyle, I think.

It was kind of like the last days of Berlin.

That was Freddie's last hurrah.

I know there would a time
when I can't run around on stage

because it'll be ridiculous.

I know there comes a time
when you have to stop.

I remember the very last gig in Knebworth.

Freddie said,
"Look, I can't fucking do this anymore."

You'll have to bleep me again, won't you?

It's very hard to quote Freddie
without swearing.

It was just part of his vocabulary, you know?

He said, "I can't do this anymore.
You have to understand."

And we thought,
"It's just Freddie being Freddie."

He was quoted as saying,
that he can't do this forever,

that there are gonna be different phases
to his career

because rock and roll
is a young man's game.

And when he's going to be middle-aged,
he's going to have to do other things.

You might not have the physical fitness
to run around on stage,

but you could still write songs.

So, one way or another,
the music side is always gonna be in my life.

It was a hard thing
trying to do the new Queen album.

At the same time,
I was also writing a couple of tracks

for the this new musical that's coming out,
called "Time."

And I worked it out,
that I'm sure I can fit that in.

It was pretty near,

'cause there was one time where
I was actually going from the Queen studio

and the next day, trying to do Time.

And I was so confused.
I didn't know what track I was doing.

I first met Freddie Mercury
at Abbey Road Studios in the mid '80s.

And it came about because I was
musical director on a musical called, "Time."

Dave Clark and I had worked on
the album of Time,

which featured a wonderful selection
of really great artists.

Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Cliff,

and he told me one day, "I think,
Freddie Mercury's gonna do two tunes."

I said, "Well, that's fantastic."

I met Freddie. This incredible force of nature
hurtled through the door.

It was just immense presence.

Enthusiastic, keen,
Freddie Mercury, for goodness sakes.

He contacted me not long after that.

He said, "Look, would you be interested
in working on a solo album with me?"

That was agreed and he said,

"Before we do that, I've really
always wanted to record a cover version.

"Something I've never done
in my own name."

And he said, "The song I want to do
is The Great Pretender."

Hello, my name is Freddie Mercury,

and this is my latest recording,
The Great Pretender.

I wanted to do a cover version
a long time ago

and you can't do that with Queen 'cause
we just write our own original material,

and I've always had that
in the back of my head.

And this song was the one
I always wanted to do.

It is brilliant. The whole thing is brilliant.
Five.

Over the top, Corrina?

I think it's brilliant.

And the video, had lots to it. I'll give it five.

It's one of the best videos ever.

It's really good. I really like that.
Can we give it 10?

What I like about it
is the way he's sending himself up.

I think, anyone who can mock himself
in that way deserves all the mark.

I give it five and a half.

So, well done to Freddie.
He wins this week's Pop Panel.

He thought it was appropriate
because he was a pretender.

He was certainly, the great self invention.

In Freddie, you had a shy person
who lived with the protection of his persona.

It's the stuff I do, its pretending,
it's like acting.

So, you go on stage, and I pretend
to be a macho man and all that

and in my videos,
you go through all the different characters

and you're pretending anyway.

So, I think, it's a great title for what I do
and sort of suited to what I was doing.

All of this is just a pretense and it's just fun.

These days,
we know so much about celebrities.

If he was around today,

people would be taking
camera-phone pictures of him

or there'd be snapshots of him
in Heat Magazine.

But, Freddie Mercury was truly elusive
and mysterious, and enigmatic.

We didn't know a lot about Freddie

and we still don't really know
a lot about Freddie.

Why haven't you done any interviews
in the past few years?

- 'Cause I hate them.
- Why?

I just hate them.
I hate talking to people I don't really know.

It's the media, basically,

they built me up being
a real ogre and a tyrant on stage

because of the way I come across.

On stage, I'm very volatile
and that's the only part they see of me.

I don't talk to everybody, so,
they don't really know the real me.

And I don't think anybody will.

When we got to the end of
The Great Pretender,

I said, "Fred, one thing
we haven't thought about is a B-side."

And he said, "Look, I'll tell you what?

"Why don't you go and play some
nice, little classical thing on the piano?"

He said, "And I'll warble over the top
and we'll kind of figure something out.

It became the B-side of The Great Pretender.

I was planning to do a solo project
and I wanted it to have some kind of bearing.

Something different from
another boring studio album.

I think, now I have the time and the capacity

to actually venture into areas
which I would never dare.

I don't want to sort of end my life
just being a rock & roll star.

It was 1986, just before Christmas,
when Freddie got a call

that Montserrat Caballé has heard him
on an interview

when they were in Spain on the tour.

You won't believe this, but...

I put the television on,

and there was the group and Freddie of all,

and they were asked,
"What do you like more about Spain?"

And he was answering, "Montserrat Caballé."

She's the best. That's why I listen to her.

I love Freddie very much

but I was surprised that
he said this on television.

He said, "You'll never guess.

"I've had a phone call
from Montserrat Caballé,

"and she wants to meet us."
I said, "What? She wants to meet you?"

He said, "No, no, no. You're coming with me.
We're going to Barcelona on Saturday."

He said, "I think,
we ought to take something to play

"which might her laugh
and cut the ice a little bit."

He said,
"Why don't we take this thing that we did?"

We built a full concert PA system

and we laid out a lunch,
so that we could have lunch together.

The plan being
that we'd all have a lovely lunch

and then, play her this song, and say,
"This is the sort of thing we want to do."

I have never in my life
seen Freddie so nervous.

He was chain smoking,
he was marching up and down...

We met here in the Hotel Ritz.

He was a little shy in the beginning
to sing with me.

He was so nervous, that instead of saying,

"How lovely to meet you.
Would you like some lunch?"

And all the various plans that we had,
and then, he just blurted out,

"I've written a song for you.
Would you like to hear it?"

And I told him,

"But, you're sure you want to sing with me?"

And he says,
"Yes. I was dreaming of that all my life."

The only thing I asked him was
to have the score of Exercises in Free Love.

I said, "Give me the music.

"I will learn and maybe
something will come from that."

But I was tricking him because
I wanted to sing that as a vocalize

in one of my recitals
at the Royal Opera House.

Freddie didn't know.
Freddie wasn't told about it.

This was her idea.

And Montserrat came on,
but, the normal pianist didn't.

And Mike Moran walked on after her
and sat at the piano.

She then performed Exercises in Free Love.

And I was surprised at the big ovation.
The whole room was crazy.

I made them be quiet,

then, I said,
"I'd like to present the accompanists

"which is Mike Moran and the head of this
is in the lodge, Freddie Mercury."

So, they began to applaud
and it had a very big impact on him.

He said this was the first time he received
an ovation at the Royal Opera House.

Last night, she sang one of my songs

at the Royal Opera House,
so, it was amazing.

Now, I'm going into opera. Forget rock & roll.

And we went after this
to his home to have dinner.

And so, after the dinner, we began to work.

Simple songs are...

It's good fun? Making...

I'm thinking,
"I've never done something like that!"

- No, it's good!
- I'm going crazy!

I said, "This is very good

"because this is a crossover with feeling

"not only with notes."

You're not tired? You must rest a little.

Do you want me to go? I'm going.

No, no, no, I don't want you to go.
I just think you must rest.

Freddie was worried,
"You're tired, you've got a flight at 9:00,"

"I don't want to be in trouble
because you're late."

She says,
"You don't like me. You don't like my voice."

I sound so terrible.

- You sound...
- No!

I can sing till 6:00 in the morning.

Everyone was surprised

that we were in his home until 6:00 a.m.

They were asking what we had done.

I said, "We have done everything
but not what you thought."

She said things like,

"Only one song? Are you sure?
You only want to do one song?"

And I said, "Let's see how we get on,
if you like more of my music."

And she said, "How many songs
does a normal rock & roll album have?"

And I said something, like, "10."
"We'll do 10 songs then."

And we knew we were away
and then, she went on to say,

"But the song I really want
is about my home town.

"I want a song about Barcelona."

What drives you on?

At this very moment, it's Montserrat Caballé.

Would you like a flippant gesture from me
to start it off?

I really thought it would never come
to any sort of fruition.

And when she accepted, I was dumbfounded.

So then, I thought, "My God,
I better put my money where my mouth is."

It's such a challenge, actually.

I've never thought of writing songs
in that way.

Now, she said,
she wants to do duets with me.

I have to think in a totally different way.

I told him, "When we do an album,

"it has to be an album of friendship,

"and also, of understanding musically both."

Not like, two worlds
and everyone singing his way.

No. Two worlds come together.

I'm sure the opera critics
will slam it and everything,

but, this is something
it's a good challenge this time in life.

Pavarotti was saying, "That's bad."

"So bad. You're dumbing down opera."

98% of the people
who bought the Barcelona single

has never heard of Montserrat Caballé.

So, Freddie was doing them a great service
by introducing them to a great artist.

It was an immediate hit.

Freddie Mercury's given us
a lot of good stuff over the years.

The first video, back in '76,
with Bohemian Rhapsody.

And now,
he brings opera into the singles chart.

It's the highest new entry this week.
With Montserrat Caballé, Barcelona.

The critical reaction was puzzlement.

I wouldn't say that the press
were negative about it because they knew,

"Wait a minute,
this woman is selling out Covent Garden.

"She's gotta be good.

"So, I don't wanna show my ignorance
by condemning it.

"But, on the other hand,
I don't know what it's about.

"So, I can't say that it's good.
So, let's just say, this is different."

I was a Queen fan when Barcelona came out.

I was probably only 12,

but, that song, I just thought,
was magnificent.

It was so exciting.

It was so uplifting.

The single, I thought, was fantastic.

You sometimes think, "Is he having us on?"

But it was so good musically,
and so intriguing,

a wonderful melody, and beautifully sung.

And Freddie matched Montserrat.

There's only ever really one Freddie
who could do that kind of thing

and make that kind of record
and make it okay.

I think, the reason why it was okay is you
got this guy standing in front of you going,

"It's all right. You're safe. You're with me.
I know what I'm doing."

Even though it's the most ridiculous thing
in the entire world, it's okay.

When Freddie decided
to record his second album,

I want back into New York

and said to Walter that
we've come in to discuss the second album.

The first album had sold
about 130,000 copies

and CBS were reeling from the loss
that they had made on the first album.

So, he sat there, he said,

"I understand. You gotta do a second album.
So, what is it?"

I said, "It's a duet album."

And he said, "That sounds interesting.
Might get something out of that.

"So, dueting with who?"

And I said, "It's Montserrat Caballé.
She's a Spanish opera singer."

And he completely freaked.
And he said, "You have to be joking.

"You can't conceivably be delivering me
an opera-duet album as the second album."

And in the end, he paid us
quite a substantial amount of money

to go away and deliver the album
somewhere else.

Which is what we did.

I think, the thing about the Barcelona album

is that it allowed Freddie to do things
that he couldn't really do with Queen.

Queen allowed Freddie to do a lot

but they certainly wouldn't have allowed him,
I think, to get an opera singer in.

Especially a female one.

There was such intensity,
because it was a difficult thing.

Don't forget,
this had never been done before, really.

He was stepping into an area
he didn't really know a lot about.

And one of the reasons why

the album was originally recorded
solely on keyboards,

was because that way he could control

at least one end of
the environment he was working in.

I said, I'll write the songs and then, you have
to come in the studio and try out things.

So, she looked up her schedule and said,

"I have three days to spare in May,"
and that's all.

She thinks she can just come in and do it.
That's the way they work, you see?

So, she thinks in three days, she'll probably
just come in and sing the whole...

So I've got to have it all prepared.
But, I think, three days is pushing it.

At one point,
Fred and I really got bogged down.

We got really stuck on the lyrics.

It's easier for me
to write a melody and a structure,

but, in terms of the actual lyrics,

I find that hard, because I'm not a poet
and I hate writing lyrics anyway.

I wish somebody else could do it.

He said, "Why don't we get some Tim Rice?"

I was very happy to be roped in

and I did a couple of lyrics for Freddie
to these amazing back tracks I was given.

I was given complete carte blanche
to write about what I wanted

and I thought, "This sounds operatic
and it sounds dramatic

"so I'll create some characters."

The two songs I wrote had, sort of,
I suppose, similar titles.

One was called The Fallen Priest
and one was called The Golden Boy.

My favorite song on the album
is The Golden Boy

'cause I always think of it
as the song that has everything.

It starts off dark and mysterious,
minor chords and angry,

and then it goes really sweet.

"I love you for your silence."

And then the gospel comes in
and you just don't see that coming at all.

And then it goes dark again at the end.

You feel like you've heard a whole life
in one song.

I think one of the reasons

that Freddie put so much of himself

into the Barcelona project

was the fact that he had just found out

of his AIDS status.

He explained to me that obviously
he'd got some rather heavy news for me.

And I suppose like everybody's reaction,
just total disbelief.

"No, we must get someone else's opinion
on this."

We talked a little about it,
but then he just said,

"Look, these are
the top AIDS specialists there are."

In terms of gay visibility back then,
you had some people like Jimmy Somerville,

people like that, who were quite political,

but there was something quite austere
about them, and asexual.

Or you had gay people
who were in the closet.

But Freddie along with Elton,
was just quite flippant about his sexuality.

And he didn't have a care in the world
about it

and it was a really great role model, I think.

He wasn't overtly sexual.
He was camp as anything.

He was the most camp performer ever.
He's got to be.

But I don't think
there was ever anything sexual about it.

- Hello.
- Hello.

Freddie, it's told that the song,
I Want To Break Free,

is dedicated for the gay world.

No, not at all. Not at all.

To start off with,
that song was written by John Deacon,

and he's a very happily married man
with about four children.

It's got nothing to do with the gay thing.

Besides, it's not my song anyway.
John wrote it.

Some people now are a bit more critical
of Freddie Mercury.

They feel that he was a bit closeted

because he didn't talk that directly
about his sexuality.

And they also think
he should've spoken about his illness.

But I think you have to accept that the media
at the time would crucify almost anyone

who spoke about that.

...like some prison officers
demanding protective clothing,

some policemen wearing masks and gloves
when dealing with homosexuals,

some morticians refusing
to embalm the bodies of AIDS victims.

I always feel terrible when people are judged
on their sexual behavior in the '70s

from the perspective of today's knowledge.

Because, in fact,
while we were going through the '70s,

it was assumed
that there would be no consequences

for whatever your sexual actions may be.

I was extremely promiscuous.
It was excess in every direction.

I want everyone to get fucked all night
every day just like I do.

He intentionally didn't get tested
for several years

because in those days
since there was no treatment,

a lot of people chose not to get tested.

They didn't want to know.

And Freddie was one of them.

I did this big interview with him
in Pikes Hotel, Ibiza.

He had his friends
around the swimming pool,

played a bit of tennis,

and it was sadly that day
when I realized something was wrong,

that he might possibly have HIV.

I brought this up in the interview,
and he was very, very honest.

Freddie, how has the AIDS thing
affected you?

Well, I've stopped going out, whatever,

and to be honest, I'll tell you,
I've almost become a nun.

I thought sex was a very important thing
to me and I lived for sex and everything,

and now it's just gone
completely the other away.

And it's frightened me to death.

I've just stopped having sex, really.

- Have you?
- Yes.

I just like titillation though.

I'm also an old bird now.

One of these days in the studio,

I saw two glasses of champagne

and I wanted to take one,

and he tells me,
"Not this one. The other one."

I say, "I'm sorry.
I didn't know that you drank out of this."

I wanted to kiss like how it was then.

And he says, "No. Don't kiss me anymore."

And I thought, "You are angry?"
Because I didn't understand.

And he says, "No, but, Montsey,"
he calls me Montsey,

"I am seropositive,

"and I don't want to kiss you."

It was the beginning of this illness.

And, of course,

I say, "But you look so good.
You are so strong,

"and you sing so wonderful."

He says, "Yes, but I know
that there will come one day

"that I can't anymore."

Freddie was incredibly loyal to his friends,
even in the case of Paul Prenter.

Freddie supported him, basically,
he gave him money

so that he could get his life together again.

But then he soon went back to Ireland
once he'd got on his feet again.

He disappeared back
and that's where he sold the story.

When he betrayed him in the newspapers,
that was it. He was devastated.

Because I think it really was the first time
that Freddie had been publicly betrayed.

And that was a terrible shock.

If you trust somebody with all your secrets

and then they go and sell it
to a newspaper for just £32,000...

It was just dreadful.

All of this was going on
while he was preparing to record

with, for him,
the greatest singer in the world.

One of the fascinating things about AIDS,
which is a fairly long death sentence,

is that it increases the creativity in artists.

Freddie was not alone
in having an enormous burst of creativity

towards the end of his life.

As a songwriter, do you ever have a fear
that your inspiration may dry up?

I don't wake up every morning and say,
"Look, have I dried up?"

He's looking after me.

When that happens...

It won't happen. That's all there is to it.
There you go.

I don't think it'll ever happen. I'll die first.

Every time I saw it, I see his adieu.

He took the hand and I wanted to retain,
and he didn't want it.

It's so significant, every movement,

every look,

everything.

In his mind, he had to create the best music
he could for Barcelona

because it might be the last thing
that he was ever involved in.

He absolutely immersed himself
into this album, completely and utterly.

It was, for him, possibly
the most important work he ever did.

I'm glad I did it.
It was a totally different adventure.

I'd like to see other rock and roll singers
try things like that

and see if they can get away with it.

They probably couldn't get away with it,
Freddie, but you did.

- I'm wonderful, aren't I?
- Yes.

Barcelona was the first major crossover
with a major rock star

and a major opera star.

I think it made it okay
for other people to do it.

Then in the '90s, there was Pavarotti with...
You name it. Bono, Sting, Elton.

It was a huge success.

And it rode in on the back of Barcelona,
which was a big track.

And it was a very successful album indeed.

As he looked back at his artistic life,
of course, he would be most proud of Queen.

Let's not pretend that he wasn't.

But, boy, would he be glad
that he got this one in.

After we took this long holiday
doing our solo stuff,

we decided that we'd only come back
together if we really wanted to.

And we felt that we really wanted to.

We just came into the studio

and things just evolved naturally
straight away.

So we were hungry for it
and it felt like the early days

and that's why we got very excited,
and out came a whole load of tracks.

In 1989, the doctors told him that,
"You stop everything.

"The cigarettes, the drink, everything.

"You stop, and you will have a bit more life."

But they had also told us at that point,

"Be prepared
that Freddie will not see Christmas."

Ladies and gentlemen, of course,
the top band of the '80s are Queen.

Innuendo was actually seen
as a real critical return to form.

And Innuendo was the first number one
they'd had since Under Pressure.

This year's special award
for outstanding contribution to British music

goes to Queen.

There was absolutely no impression for me
that he could've been sick.

He was full of beans,

and singing away.

There was a feeling of re-exploring our youth
almost, buried in there somewhere,

and it was fun.

We were working really flat out
on everybody's ideas

and not being possessive about things.

That's quite a liberation.

Actually, we had some fantastic times

and we were a very close-knit group
like a family,

and we would work in the studio
until Freddie got really tired.

He had more concern about his cats
than he did about most human contact.

He would much rather, if he was on tour
or away recording or something,

talk to his cats than he would friends
and he really would call them up.

He would call up whoever was in the house,

and expect to talk to one of the cats.

They were his babies.
His cats were his babies.

Would you like to have children,
for example?

I can buy them.

Of course I would like to have children.
I'm just being very frivolous and flippant.

But, yes, I would.

With the right girl, yes.

It's nice, isn't it?

You're not even taking him.

He was having radiation therapy

but he had to do that about 5:30, 6:00
in the morning

because it had to be done at the hospital,
it could not be done at home.

But it had to be done
when few people as possible were around

to see him going in there.

Yet he would still go home,
have a couple of hours' rest,

and go and make music.

When we did discover that Freddie
had this terrible AIDS virus in his body,

there was still a disbelief in us.

You think, "It can't happen to our mate.
It can't happen to Freddie.

"There's gonna be some way out of this.
He's gonna be cured."

And right up to the last minute,
I think we knew but we didn't know.

We refused to know, if you like.

Do you ever worry that you could end up
a lonely, rich, old man when you're 70?

No, because I will be dead long before that.

You don't expect to be old bones...

No, actually, I really don't care.

I have lived a full life
and if I'm dead tomorrow,

I don't give a damn.

The man was so strong that you couldn't
even tell he was sick, really. Honestly.

And finally, he said,
"I have to sit down now for singing."

Maybe I was stupid
or maybe I was just trying to ignore it, really.

Maybe I couldn't believe it.
I didn't want to believe it.

The last time we met
was approximately 10 days before he died.

He and I had a long meeting,

and I talked to him
about preparing a press release,

which he didn't really want to talk about.

He said, "Whatever you want to do,
I don't mind,"

because what he wanted to talk about
was his music, still,

because even at that very late stage
in his life,

the music was the one thing
that brought him to life.

It never really sank in to me
up until probably the last two weeks

that he was dying.

I think I really carried on my normal work,
just to keep myself occupied.

I didn't wanna go absolutely crazy
thinking about it all the time.

And they phoned me up two weeks later that,

"This is the Daily Mirror.
Do you know that Freddie Mercury is dying?

"Do you have anything to say about it?"

It was weird.
He didn't seem like he was dying.

To me, he was full of beans. Right to the end.

The music world
has been paying tribute to Freddie Mercury,

the lead singer of the rock group, Queen.

He died last night, 24 hours after confirming
he was suffering from AIDS.

I turned on Teletext and it says,
"Rock star Mercury dies of AIDS."

And I wept and howled and shrieked

and I cried all night.

The night after he died,
I went to 1 Logan Place.

There were probably 100 people there,

and people were just crying
and comforting each other.

And it was just incredibly sad.

- Why did you want to come today?
- Just to pay our last respects to him,

just to show what sort of a person he was,

a person that everyone loved
and never hurt nobody.

I wrote on a note, "There can be only one,"

which, of course,
is a slogan from Highlander,

which is a film that Queen did the music for.

And I pinned the note on the door
and I lit a candle.

And Queen music
was blasting out of the house

but it was just the saddest,
saddest, saddest thing.

Why have you come?

I can't answer any questions.

Some say the greatest gift
Freddie Mercury left behind

was his public acknowledgment
that he had AIDS.

Just 24 hours before he died,
he ended speculation about his health

by issuing a statement
saying he was HIV positive.

I think the press said their final bit of vitriol
against Freddie at that time.

Which is amazing,
that we had some nasty reports,

some of them even saying
that he deserved to die

'cause he had a promiscuous lifestyle.

Quite unbelievable things people wrote.

So Roger and I went on television
to just set the record straight, really.

Everybody's become instant experts
on the life and past of Freddie Mercury,

be they in the papers
or be they on television. They commented.

Where did they go wrong
and where did they go right

in their assessment? You first.

It's been quite distressing to read
some of the reports in the press.

Yes, but it would be wrong of us not to say

that he has been depicted in certain quarters
as a decadent,

wild, bisexual, irresponsible lover.

Certainly, the Freddie we knew
wasn't wildly promiscuous.

He wasn't consumed by drugs,
any of these things that people are saying.

He had a very responsible attitude
to everyone that he was close to

and he was a very generous
and caring person

to all the people that came through his life.
And more than that, you can't ask.

I tell you, we feel absolutely bound
to stick up for him

'cause he can't stick up for himself anymore.

I think you can't defend anybody

in the context of having Paul Daniels
sitting next to you.

Were you a fan of Queen
and of Freddie Mercury?

Well, no, 'cause I wasn't a fan of any music.

I just put my head down,
I should imagine like you did into music,

I put my head down into magic.

What a dick.

Can I equally say that I am not giving
any of the Royal Family magic lessons

which I read in the paper this week.

Four years since Freddie Mercury,
the lead singer of the rock group, Queen,

died from AIDS. Today,
owing to a combination of his foresight

and the marvels
of modern recording techniques,

a new Queen album will be released,
with Freddie Mercury singing.

It was a monumental task
to put that album together

which became called Made In Heaven.

But I think it's one of our best albums,
strangely enough.

Things like A Winter's Tale
really came out of that desperately ill stage

'cause we knew
that the situation was closing in on us

and so we made the most of every moment.

They were made
very much out of an awareness

that Fred wasn't gonna be around very long.

The whole album is a fantasy

because it sounds like the four of us
are there all together, having fun,

and making the album, but, of course,
for most of the time when you're listening,

that's not the case.
It's built to sound that way.

We felt he was almost in a corner of the room

and known each other so well for so long,
we thought, "He'd like that bit,

"and he probably wouldn't like that bit."

So we got there.

Now, having been through that,

I can listen to the album and it's just joy.

At number one
five years after its original release,

Freddie Mercury's Living On My Own.

The very last thing he said to me was,

"You can do anything you like
with my music, my image, my life, anything.

"But never make me boring."

When I decided to remix Living On My Own,
I went to EMI,

and said, "There's a great track
on his solo album

"and I think we should remix it."
They didn't agree,

and they said, "No, no, the album is dead,
it hasn't worked."

I said, "In that case,
we'll go ahead and do it ourselves."

And we remixed it independently,
put it out independently,

and then EMI picked up the track later

once it had become a dance hit
across the clubs of Europe.

I got probably about 100 to 120 hate letters

from die-hard fans, saying,

"How dare you?
What are you touching his music for?"

The reason I'd done that is because
Freddie had always made it very plain

that he was not precious
about what he produced.

To him, it was a disposable product.

Songs are like buying a new dress
or a new shirt.

You wear it and then you discard it.
People are always writing new songs,

and I think, okay,
a certain few classics will always remain,

but as far as I'm concerned,
I like to look upon it as writing new material.

What I've written in the past
is finished and done with.

Freddie Mercury was quoted as saying,
"My songs are disposable."

And he was either being modest
or disingenuous.

But either way, he was wrong

because his songs
have completely stood the test of time.

They might've been written for fun,

but actually they mean a lot to a lot of people

and they will be listened to
long after any of us have gone.

Now that we're at the 25th anniversary
of the Barcelona song,

it seemed the right moment to do what
I'm quite sure Freddie would've wanted to do

had he had the balls at the time,

which was to do the album
with full orchestra and not with keyboards.

So we are working with Stuart Morley,
who's our musical director

from We Will Rock You in London.

And he has gone back to the album

and orchestrated it faithfully
for a full 80-piece orchestra.

And then we will put Freddie
and Montserrat's voice back on to that

and realize the album
that I think should've been there

had we had the balls to do it at the time.

It turned out to be such a success

that it sold better after he died
than before he died.

And in 1992,
the Olympics actually happened in Barcelona

and the song goes to number two.

It succeeded in its great purpose

but its great purpose
was after Freddie had died.

Freddie was a shy boy.

He was so worried about his skin
and his teeth

and how he looked and everything,

but he overcame everything
to become that rock god.

You think you're going to get to heaven?

No. I don't want to.

- You don't want to?
- No. Hell's much better.

Look at the interesting people
you're gonna meet down there.

You're gonna be there, too, you know.

He really invented this persona
which he inhabited in public,

this outrageous showmanship,
et cetera, et cetera,

but at the heart of it,
he was a brilliant, brilliant musician

and I think that's what people forget
about Freddie Mercury.

How would you like to be remembered?

I don't know.
I don't really think about it. It's up to them.

When I'm dead, who cares? I don't.

Come on. Again.

Now, your album's been shipped
around the world, Freddie.

Have you anything to say to the stations
in Australia?

Looking to actually outrage them
with my new costumes.

Do you have a message
for the stations in Brazil?

I just want them to have a carnival
every time they listen to my songs.

A message for the stations in Japan?

Japan, better watch out.

And do you have a message
for the stations in Mexico?

No!

- Why not?
- Because I don't give a shit.

And finally, the stations in Sweden.

Fuck everybody else! That's it.

You forgot Tibet.

Fuckin' hell. Now, come on. That's enough.