Brian May: “We had a lot of doubts about Freddie”

Brian May recalled the difficult early days of the Queenwhen many people didn’t like it Freddie Mercury and the singer didn’t like his own voice.

In a recent Q&A session, the guitarist admitted that the band had wondered whether it had been a mistake to link up with the future star in 1970.

“When we first worked with him, it was a little nerve-wracking,” May said. “Because he was running around the place a lot and screaming like crazy. So we thought, ‘Is this going to work?'”

He continued: “And not everyone liked him, I have to say. A lot of people found him a bit abrupt, but everyone thought he was interesting and funny. At the time, though, he wasn’t the singer we all knew as Freddie Mercury. ”

This started happening during Queen’s first demo sessions in 1971. “We went into the studio and… as soon as Freddie heard his recorded voice, he said, ‘Oh, I don’t like it. I’ll do it again.’ “And he would do it again and do it and do it again, until he got the result he wanted. So he became, instantly, very aware of what he was playing, and incredibly quick to transform himself into the singer he wanted to be.”

May stressed that these events took place over a “fairly long” period of time. He added: “It probably went on forever. Every time we had to make a new album, Freddie would push himself further. He would hear the recordings and say: ‘No, I want to do better, longer, more passion, more… . whatever it was… He was always looking for new structures, and trying to get more out of himself.”

Brian May recalled that the other members of Queen participated in Mercury’s trial (who had played in other youth groups before joining Queen). “We helped him,” he said. “Whenever one of us was in the studio, the others were in the control room. So, a lot of times, I’d be sitting there and Freddie was doing a vocal, and he’d say, ‘What’s that like?’ And I’d go, ‘Well, we like this song, but we didn’t like it…” So we helped him build what works. And the same goes the other way around: I would do a guitar solo and often Freddie would be there saying: ‘Well, that’s fine , but…’ We were pushing each other the whole time.”