#i'd have a group of friends over and just go completely apeshit

[natromanxoff]

The Big Issue In The North - September, 2006

Credits to Louise Belle and Queencuttings.com

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury

Exclusive unseen interview

‘Outrage is wonderful’

The world's first Indian and Persian rock star would have been 60 earlier this month. Fifteen years after Freddie Mercury's death, and with his songs remaining as popular as ever, the following previously unpublished 1984 interview reveals a performer at the top of his game

Words: Steve Lake

Lake: For a while, you captured an American black audience with songs like Another One Bites The Dust. Was that a surprise?

Mercury: Totally. I think if we'd consciously tried to write a song that would cross over to a black audience, we could never have done it. It was a song that John came up with and it just broke the barrier.

Lake: Were you listening to bands like Chic when you broke through the disco barrier?

Mercury: No. At that point I'd only really listened to soul singers. Like Aretha Franklin, whom I've always loved. Or Marvin Gaye. Since then of course I've been quite active with my Michael Jackson impersonations! I've moved from writing multi-layer harmony-type things. I like the very open-space black funk things. I think it showcases my voice a bit better. For the last eight years I've been struggling to get my voice through this barrage of guitars...

Lake: You've actually been working with Michael Jackson, haven't you?

Mercury: Yes. Nothing has come of it, because we're both very busy. We've got three unfinished tracks. One of them is called Victory and the bugger has gone and called the new Jacksons album ‘Victory.' I don't think the song is included, though. I hope not. If it is, I'll go apeshit and sue the f****r.

Lake: Do you enjoy working with other singers? I heard some disgruntled noises from Brian May one time when I asked him about working with Bowie on Under Pressure.

Mercury: Interesting you should ask that. David is a very good friend of mine. No, I get on well with David. Of course, there's always this temperamental thing between musicians. A degree of ego clashing. It has to be like that, because when you're working with other people you can't have it your own way all the time. That Under Pressure session was totally spontaneous and that was why it was so good. David and I are both people who get bored very quickly and we like to do things on the spur of the moment. I just think David and Brian have nothing in common, nothing to talk about together beyond the music.

Lake: The span of personalities in Queen seems to be more extreme than in most bands.

Mercury: Yes. I think that all stems from the fact that all four of us are songwriters. So, from day one, there was always competition within the band, as well as competition outside of it. I think it's healthy. And we all have amazing egos, of course we do. We all have a key role in the group. And even if we're talking about the same topic, you'll usually get four different views on it. We're quite open about our differences. If I say something and some of the others don't like it - tough shit.

Lake: Are song lyrics very important to you? Are you self-conscious about your words?

Mercury: Yeah. I am. Look, for me the song lyrics are just completely escapist. I don't feel that I'm equipped to write any heavy in-depth message songs. To me, a Queen song is just something to be listened to and discarded — like a tissue. It's like going to the cinema and forgetting your problems for an hour and a half. I'm not here so say 'Change your life by listening to a Queen song.' I don't want to change people's lives. John Lennon could write powerful message songs. Stevie Wonder. They've lived their lives that way. You can actually believe that they mean it, if it's a peace song or a peace message. I'm not like that. I like to write a nice song with a good tune and that's it, on with the next.

Lake: How do you feel about the new groups promoting a conspicuously gay or trans-sexual image? Groups like Dead Or Alive or Frankie goes to Hollywood and Culture Club?

Mercury: Some images are good, some images are bad. I like Boy George immensely. He's got a very hard role, it's a brave thing to take on and its wonderful, it's working. Outrage is wonderful. But sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it's a bit tacky. It just depends on the individual.

Lake: do you feel that you've played with that outrage quotient in Queen?

Mercury: Oh I think so. We started off with Roxy Music in that whole glam-rock era. When I started, all people were used to was bands recreating their albums on stage and wearing jeans. So when they suddenly saw Freddie Mercury in a Zandra Rhodes frock with makeup and black nail varnish, it was totally outrageous.

Lake: Of course in England, especially in papers like The Sun, much of the interest is focused on the sex life of pop stars.

Mercury: Yes, I know. You're going to ask about this story about me being "gay" that was in The Sun. As far as I'm concerned, I just f ** k whoever I want whenever I want. With Queen, the press have just printed whatever they want to print, and they can get away with it. I don't lose any sleep over it. But that thing was completely misquoted. What can I do? I can't think 'Oh my God I've got to let everybody know that this was wrong.' The whole Sun article... I think the woman who wrote it just wanted a total scoop from me and she didn't get anything. I said "What do you want to hear? That I deal cocaine or something?' so she went away and printed that I'd actually confessed that I was gay. And there's no way I'd do that. I'm too intelligent.

Lake: Cynically, it's a good time to be gay. It's good for business.

Mercury: Isn't it? But it's wrong for me to be gay now, because I've been in the business for 12 years. It's good to be gay now or outrageous in the business if you're new. If I even came out with that people would say 'Oh God, here's Freddie Mercury suddenly saying he's gay because it's very trendy to be gay.' It's not my scene. The only thing that matters to me is the music. If the music doesn't sell, I'll just give up.

Lake: Which leads on to the inevitable questions about longevity. Is there a point beyond which you think you can't be up there on stage doing the show that you do?

Mercury: The only testing ground is the record, to be honest. It doesn't matter what the press says, if you don't sell records that's it. At this moment in time I'm bored with the stage […]

"I don't want to come across as modest but sometimes it does mystify me as to why all this happened to me. I just sing the song to the best of my ability and do the best performance I can"

[…] shows. I want to do different things. I want to play places I haven't played before. We're thinking about going to South Africa and it's going to be very political and everything, but I don't give a shit. As far as I'm concerned I'm just playing music to people. We were one of the first groups to go to South America. It was an amazing experience. Two weeks after we'd finished Britain was at war with Argentina. But that shouldn't matter as far as musicians are concerned. Music is for everybody. I want to go to Russia. We wanted to go there three or four years ago but they looked at our album covers and decided we would corrupt their youth. These are the things that I want to get to — the other corners of the world — before I give it all up.

Lake: But do you think, though, that public acceptance is really any criterion of musical quality?

Mercury: Yes!

Lake: Really?

Lake: Yeah, that's how you gauge your success, but it doesn't say anything about the intrinsic value of your music, does it?

Mercury: Oooh... what a load of shit! I know what you're saying, that you can be a wonderful undiscovered musician. So what? What does that mean? I think talent means that you know how to ram it down people's throats! Talent is being in the right place at the right time. You've got to know how to get to people. Talent is image.

Lake: I was just remembering a Rolling Stone article about Queen in Argentina which described Queen as 'the first truly fascist rock band.' Does that say anything to you?

Mercury: Oh dear. Oh dear. Noooo... OK, explain it to me. What does that mean?

Lake: Well, I'm asking you.

Mercury: A whole lot of journalists came from all over the world to see us play those stadiums in Argentina. It had never been done before, and we just happened to be popular enough to do them. In San Paolo we played to 120,000 one night and 130,000 the next. It was very new to them and it was very new to us. It was not like North America. There was no such thing as any organisation. It could have turned out to be a totally unruly crowd, so they had the Death Squad doing the security. Before we came on stage, the whole military was up the front with bayonets. Just in case... South America is a completely different kettle of fish, and they thought that if anybody could get such a vast audience it could become very, very political. They pleaded with me to not say 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina'. When you have a mass like that in front of you, you're in command, you can actually control it. They were very worried that I could turn this musical event into a political rally.

Lake: How do you feel in the middle of a scene like that?

Mercury: Oh very powerful, very powerful. You feel like the Devil. You feel that you could run riot with all these people. Somebody else with a different mentality could really use it to their political advantage or disadvantage.

Lake: What does it do to you on a day-to-day basis when you're on a stage and thousands of people are chanting your name?

Mercury: It's wonderful. The adrenalin's there... Of course, it makes you feel completely powerful. But as far as I'm concerned, I just lose myself in the music. I just want to make sure that I do a good performance and have a riotous time. That's what I really think... I don't suddenly think 'I've got all this power, I can DESTROY!' It's not a destructive thing. I'm too wonderful for that. I'm too good.

Lake: Do you think ‘Yes, I deserve this kind of adulation'?

Mercury: (Laughing) No, no, no. That kind of adulation I'm quite overawed by, to be honest. I don't want to come across as modest, but sometimes it does mystify me as to why all this happened to me. I just sing the song to the best of my ability and do the best performance I can.

Lake: Do you prefer to be categorized as "star" or "musician"?

Mercury: Oooh, I don't know (laughing). I don't know. I'm just a human being. I'm just somebody doing a job. What does it mean — star or mega-star or whatever? I'm just doing my job. I don't mind being called a singer, or a singer/songwriter. I think I like that best.

Lake: Do you think you are overpaid?

Mercury: Well, there's a lot of money to be made in this game. No, I work hard for my money. What I like about it is that everything I've got is what I actually made myself. Nobody gave it to me. It wasn't handed to me on a platter. I worked for it. Everything that I have is worthwhile, because I made it myself. I like to work for my money. If all the success finished tomorrow, I'd try and regain this status in some other way, by actually working. I don't want to be given anything.