Description
Freddie Mercury having a fun interview with Lisa Robinson on 1st February 1984.
Interview Transcript
On radio 1990 99
1990 don't hi i'm lisa robinson on radio
1990 and i'd like to welcome my very
special guest
freddie mercury why haven't you done any
interviews in the past few years
because i hate them why i just hate them
i hate talking to people
i don't really know it's the media
basically built me up being a real ogre
and a tyrant on stage because the way i
come across
on stage you know i'm very volatile and
that's the only part they see of me i
mean if
i don't talk to everybody so they don't
really know the real me
and i don't think anybody will and um
how does it show itself oh i mean i have
tantrums i mean if something's not going
right i just i
throw things i mean i i used to i could
destroy a room in about three seconds i
used
to used to be able to but i mean i don't
do that anymore
you say destroyer room you mean like on
tour that kind of
trash hotel room or a hotel room
sometimes it was even in my own
apartment and then it got a bit
expensive and all those
lolly classes being thrown on it you
didn't look like a lolly
did you really several oh those are
thousands of dollars are you very very
rich
oh i'm extremely rich do you like being
rich of course what do you do with it i
flaunt it
what do you do with your money i spend
it you said the rest of the guys have
houses in la i assume you mean the other
members of queen
yeah who do you think i meant what are
their names again stop that
brian lay roger
i sometimes forget them too but you
don't really
hang out with them or anything
you know if i like them i'll socialize
with them now and again it depends but i
mean as a rule i don't they have very
different um characters and they like
different things you know i like to go
to ballet and opera and things they
don't
they don't like all that they just just
keep going to rock and roll shows
why do you think you've managed to stay
together working with them
at this job in this business for all
these many years now what it
was formed in 1971 why do you think
we've lasted this long money darling
no i mean that's is that why you've
lasted this long well that's why you've
stayed together for this song
i think we kind of um underneath it all
we kind of like each other and we like
the music we make that's basically it i
mean
i mean if we um if we didn't like the
music that we were making we'd
you know say goodbye to each other
because i mean no there's nothing else
left
though the music is still there
basically that's basically it
when you first came together did you
think were you very different then
how do you mean oh yes we i mean we were
very you were very diverse personalities
yes but at that time we were sort of
getting to know each other and we had so
much to sort of
put across and we were very hungry for
for um
for a hamburger anything right
yes we were just hungry we just wanted
to we just wanted to let it all out and
um
and so um you know we kept we took it
from there
and the the thing about is the four of
us sort of write very different songs
and so it's kind of um it keeps us going
i mean if everybody wrote the same kind
of thing and we all
appeal to the same kind of people and
everything then it would be a bit boring
i mean we just have four totally diverse
personalities and
different egos and then that runs right
and that's good so we still fight them
we still fight like kids
every time i'm in the same room with
brian that's you know within five
minutes we sort of
sparks fly yeah i haven't hit him yet
but there's still time is that a
possibility really
i bet you'd like to be there um no no he
writes i mean
especially now i mean total extremes i
mean he's still into the heavy metal
type of stuff which is fine you know i
just sort of moved away from it i'm more
into the black
kind of thing i like more the disco more
i like to try
different things every time and you know
in the early days we came through the
heavy metal thing and even
after about the second album i started
writing different kind of things i mean
a heavy metal band doesn't have to have
to just stick to
heavy you know big heavy merchant chords
and things all the time i mean you can
write
i mean i'd like to think that i'm just
i'm a songwriter
flamboyant theatrical
you've always been very sort of
flamboyant
and theatrical and concerned with
visuals and stuff with them getting a
bit sober in my old age
are you i think so yeah what do you mean
just in terms of the way you dress
no no dress got nothing to do with it no
in terms of my thinking in terms of my
thinking no on stage i still dance
around you know
it's just my thinking you know i've
become it's like i mean i just can't um
i look back at myself and think oh my
god how could i have done that you know
wearing black nail varnish and the long
hair
and wearing the makeup and wearing the
kind of clothes but i mean that's
everybody grows out of it you know i
mean i was when i was about 20 20 22
years old
i'm now 37. still looking wonderful i
was just gonna say this looks
very good and i have not had a face you
have not had a temporary
um you also i remember you used to be a
fan of liza minnelli's
and very kind of real show busy stuff
that
as you said doesn't really have much to
do with rock and roll i mean going to
the opera and going to the ballet and
all that yeah but i mean i used it in my
in my shows that's the way i mean it's
like um
i think queen are a theatrical band you
know i mean we don't like just going on
on stage and just strumming our guitars
and i mean it's we put on a show so i
mean
i mean that's the kind of person i am
it's just um i'm a trooper honey so you
don't feel limited
by rock and roll by the whole genre no i
don't think so
you don't want to go to a broadway show
or do you want to do a broadway show
no no no i think rock and roll
is is has a very wide spectrum and you
can do anything you want in it look at
look we'll look at boy george i mean
yeah
kind of as theatrical as you can get
variety of styles
the songs that you've written and
particularly many of the hits they've
been such a different variety of styles
in your voice also
is so different you know a crazy little
thing called love is such a different is
that kind of music that you always liked
that particular kind of rockabilly elvis
sort of thing oh yes i like that too
i mean i like um i like all kinds
i like to i just like to do different
things i like to
it's like i don't like to stay in one
position for
for too long and so that comes out in
everything it comes out in
my songs and my lyrics and uh
i just like to try everything once and
i'm not scared of the pitfalls and
things so i'm not
i'm not worried about saying my god this
is not my scene and if
i it's gonna be i mean in fact i love
the challenge i sort of
you know i i love the challenge and um i
like doing things that are
that are not part of the mainstream for
me
and uh sometimes if that works it works
in a very uh big way
otherwise it can be a very big flop but
i'm willing to take that risk and that's
why on 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
forced the other three to do it you know
they hate me for it now because it
didn't sell that much
album vs stage
i hate this thing about um people
thinking oh we've we've heard a queen
album
let's go and see this um destinations
and see if it sounds the same i mean
i think by now people who come to see
our shows know that it's not going to be
exactly the same we don't want it to be
how boring if if we reproduce note for
notes what was on the album they might
as well sit at home and
listen to the album with a few visuals
thrown in i mean i'd like them to come
see that it's a show it's
entertainment and our songs take on a
different meaning when we um
do a stager so i mean what they hear on
on record can be
totally different to what they hear on
stage i mean even deliberately do that
and some
i mean like that because some of the
songs have that much that depth i think
that well we can we can do it on an
album
and when we do it in the show we can
totally twist it around and and
we do what is best for the show a song
like um love of my life
which is a song from knight of the opera
i mean it it's very classical and very
it's got lots of musical instruments
um on it on the album and when we do it
on stage it's just
me and brian i mean brian just plays an
acoustic guitar and i just singing and
it's it's a
very good song for rapper i mean i'd
like to to get
the audience participating with me and
most of the time i let them sing the
song because they're into that so i mean
i basically conduct that song and i love
the fact that they just sing it
so it's totally different from what they
what they hear on an album are there
Russia China
places in the world that you want to go
to that you haven't been
yes i like to go to russia russia and
china
that that sort of i think they'll let
you in i don't well at the moment i
don't think so russia already turned us
down
because they think we're too um volatile
why and elton
they think we have no problem right no
he's sort of one he's already
he's in the middle yeah in the kind of
middle of the road he's okay i think
when they show uh when uh the russians
saw our
videos and and the way we come across
they thought we were a bit
too volatile and they thought we were
going to corrupt their youth incite them
yes right and probably you would
that's my that's my job what happened
with david bowie with pressure
nothing we just went to the studio did
did the song and how it came
it wasn't a big girl no but i mean
wasn't there this whole drama about him
taking his name off of it or wanting to
not be
no that was that was um it was something
else he did some like backing vocals in
one of my
songs that was on the album then that's
not under pressure there's another one
right
and um when it came to being released i
mean he didn't like he didn't like what
he did and i was like
you know tells me right right at
the tail end when
the thing is just about to come out so
anyway you know artistic license he just
didn't like his voice
right right when it was about to come
out and i said fine i said
it's quite easy all i do is erase his um
vocal and then
and now it came it wasn't like he he
didn't do a very in-depth vocal at all
it was just a background
it was just background vocals i mean he
just didn't he just didn't like it
penny i mean do you think it was
unnecessary whatever whatever i think
it's unnecessary but i mean are you not
speaking
to each other always speaking it's just
we're in different parts of the world
and uh
no i'm not one of those queens
that you like
[Music]
no he's all right he's okay how did you
happen to work with him
well i mean we were friends from a long
time back and
um and uh we were in montreal in
switzerland we own a studio there so
we're working on that and he lives there
he just happened to be there and he kept
coming to the studio listening to our
tracks and
we were jamming to some of his old songs
and things and then
one day we were having one night we were
having dinner and after that we were
going back into the studio to carry on
with the session in
and it just happened you just said oh
why don't we just fool around and and
get something started and see what
happens
and you know we started playing on the
piano and the rest of the band were then
we started
putting something down and under
pressure started to build
you get together with michael jackson
well just um
in in the early days well i mean like
three four years ago i mean you should
just come and see our shows
at the forum in la and um i guess he he
liked us and so
um i got to meet him and uh he kept
coming to see us and then we started
talking and uh
in those days i think he would actually
go out he'd go out and have dinner or
something i remember
going to dinner with him and i think now
he just stays at home he doesn't like
coming out
at all that's what you know that's what
he says i mean he's just uh
he says oh whatever he wants he can get
it home because i mean
anything he wants he just buys it but
have you ever talked have you talked to
him about
i mean just in terms of being an artist
or in terms of a song well i mean i
don't
to stay in the house like that that kind
of isolation that sucks i know that's
not me that's not me but i mean you know
that's his bag and um i wouldn't do that
i mean
i'll be bought to death i'm gonna have
to go to i have to go out every night
and i hate
staying in one room for too long anyway
i'd just like to keep
keep moving it was just just an
individual approach you know he
i don't know i mean i guess he's just um
because he started when he was very
young so i mean when you think about it
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 and for me
it's sort of quite frightening when i'm
talking to somebody who's 25 and uh
you think somebody who was 22 or 25 has
just been starting out or whatever and i
could sort of
teach him a few tricks but not michael i
think one of the tracks would have been
on uh the thriller album if i'd finished
it
but um i missed out no no no nobody
Rock n Roll
knows that if there was a book of rules
everybody would buy it and then
everybody would be churning out the same
old
trash do you think people steal from
each other and rock and roll a lot
all the time do you all the time yeah
but you they're stealing and there's
you know robbing and there's this sort
of actual murdering
so i mean it just depends i mean
everybody steals them sometimes you
still without even thinking it you know
that can be good i mean it's just uh i
mean i don't sit down and look
listen to everybody and say okay i'm
gonna snatch that phrase or whatever i
mean i can get influenced like
aretha franklin's um like phrasing is
just wonderful i wish i could sing like
her
you know her phrasing is just so
beautiful and so effortless and it's
just
she just sings like a dream it's just
like um she doesn't have to think about
it
i mean when i have to sing i think about
it i think okay after sort of i shall
practice a few phrases and then do it
because i i can tell by just listening
to aretha franklin's records that i mean
she just
goes and then just it's effortless
having said it i'm sure she
would call me up and say wait a minute i
go in there and
nobody just sounds so effortless and
it's all sort of spontaneous phrasing
and things which is what i love and
uh i sometimes try to do that on on it's
like
a song called somebody to love and that
was the gospel element
and when aretha was doing all the gospel
stuff i just loved that you know
the big big humongous choir behind her
all sort of like like tidal waves behind
her seeing you know
that's that's what i like so that's
that's one element of queen because i
mean the
multi-tracking harmonies and all that
you know there's various ways of doing
harmonies and um the gospel side of
harmonies is just
stupendous how long did it take you to
Business
get to the point where you could manage
your own business affairs i mean you
have gone through a few managerial
changes and problems
well that's how long it takes i mean i i
don't think anybody can manage straight
away unless they're very lucky and
unless they know
you've got to know the business and the
only way you know you get to know the
business is
to to to to make mistakes and have
pitfalls and and
i think every major successful artist
has gone through that
i refuse to believe that somebody's just
had no problems at all and just
managed to do it like that i think i
think that's all part of a
history all part of a band's history
they have to go through all that you
know they
get you know a lot of sharks around and
you get done in you know
people rob you blind money but that's
all part of it and then you learn by
mistakes and then you know
which people not to employ and where you
think okay you just have to
take control of this situation yourself
and um that's what we did and after a
while i mean the managers were good they
were bad they were good or whatever
it just happened there was there came a
point in time where we thought um
we can do this ourselves okay it's a bit
more work but i mean
um we've gained the experience and we
can do it ourselves besides we make more
money anyway you don't have to give
a percentage to your manager is there
one person in the group do you do more
of it than anybody else no no i think we
all do
we all as far as that side is concerned
we all um
partake in that individually it's like
um 25
to be honest all four of us because we
all come we all do different things like
john's very very good at um
the actual business sense the actual to
the money side of it the marketing and
everything so we leave that to him and
um
they'll leave me to just a wardrobe i
guess
they lead me to the wardrobe doing and
writing their heads
now what happens when one of them writes
a song that
if i don't like do you like the lyrics
yeah that's what i was going to say no
i'm not going to sit there and say yes
it sounds good
they come and tell you that of course of
course they do i tell them to