Camryn Peck

Jackie Burr, Instructure

English 2010, Section 4

4 March, 2019

Farrokh Bulsara: Born to be Freddie Mercury

The song was too long, no radio station would play it. Ray Foster had said Queen would

never have a gold record. That was 1975. Forty years later, this song is still hitting the charts. In

2018, Bohemian Rhapsody had the rare honor of hitting number one on the charts for the third

time! Of course, we can not give all the credit to the song itself. Freddie Mercury, lead singer of

Queen and one of, if not the best, performers of all time. Freddie lead an incredible life, he put

his heart and soul into every hit he ever wrote. His life was very troubling as well, as reporters

and fans started to become suspicious about Freddie’s sexuality, the interviews and questions

came to be more about this than his music. Growing up, I absolutely loved Queen, though I

didn’t know much about Freddie himself. Before doing research for myself and coming to

absolutely adore this man that I’m sad to say, I’ll never get to meet, I had always been told he

was a freak. He had done horrible things, this is not true. In reality, Freddie Mercury was just

looked down on for being attracted to men. This topic was never talked about, he was a reserved

man, never liked to talk about his life, he especially hated it when interviewers asked him

personal questions.

Love, Darling, Dear, Miami. These are a few of the names Freddie often called people.

Jim Beach, his manager, was informed his name was “too boring,” in response to this, Freddie

came up with the name Miami to… spice things up a bit. “Onstage, I am a devil,” Freddie states,
“but I’m hardly a social reject.” Freddie was well aware of the act he put on stage. According to

Roger Taylor, Queen’s second most dramatic and drummer, “No one really knew Freddie,”

thought the fans and paparazzi acted as if they did, “he was shy, gentle and kind. He wasn’t the

person he put on stage.”

After hearing rumors of Freddie’s sexuality, society took it as a flaw to his personality.

Interviewers and fans became obsessed with knowing the truth, unfortunately for them, neither

Freddie or the band would talk about it. Freddie had stated that his sexuality was no one’s

business, of course, he was right. After meeting Jim Hutton, Freddie informally ‘came out’ to the

public.

Freddie and Jim were together 6 years, from 1985-1991. Freddie passed away in 1991

from AIDS related pneumonia. He did not announce that he was sick until just a few days before

passing away. Freddie’s life purpose was always to make music, up until his last breath, he was

writing and creating music for the world to enjoy.

Freddie was not one to always know he was gay, he had romantic relations with Mary

Austin for 6 years, who later became his best friend. Mary, being a close, personal friend of

Freddie’s, had attended every concert and even helped to take care of him after learning he was

sick. Mary had been close friends with the rest of the band as well, formally knowing Roger

Taylor and Brian May from school.

Queen had been a very tight knit band, each member stuck up for each other, even when

frustrations arose. Mary Austin was in some way part of the band herself, being so close to each

member in different ways and always being supportive of their travels came in handy. According
to Roger, “If there were shenanigans and good times, Fred and I would be there.” The band

members were all surprisingly close.

A favorite quote by Freddie would have to be something he said when Queen was trying

to get a record deal. The question was simply, what makes Queen different from the rest of the

‘wanna be’ rock stars, Freddie’s answer was simple, yet very meaningful, “we’re four misfits

who don’t belong together, playing for the other misfits. To the outcasts right in the back of the

room, who are pretty sure they don’t belong either, we belong to them.” Why people would

mistreat this man who believes so strongly in a statement such as this one, is beyond me.

Freddie’s heart was crushed to hear people say he was ‘all hype’ and that he had ‘no talent.’

These rude outbursts originally started after rumors of his sexuality had first come up.

As rumors became worse, people would whisper around about how Freddie was one to

‘sleep around.’ Where this was occasionally true, no one knew Freddie’s life, therefore, why is it

their business to spread something like that. When the hit song “I Want to Break Free” came out,

Freddie took a lot of backlash from fans. The band decided to dress in drag for the music video,

as the song was a tribute to women. Fans and paparazzi took the song to be a ‘coming out’ song

and blamed Freddie for the ‘risque’ costume design. The song was later banned from MTV for

‘offensive content.’

Farrukh Bulsara’s life was a great one. Never in a million years would he have thought to

be changing his name, being internationally famous, and to forever be known as the greatest rock

singer in history. Though his life was hard, and he took many different kinds of hate for his

interest in men, he lived to the fullest, never quitting his music.