Its scary seeing what Freddie Mercury looked like before he died

So skinny and had to be covered in makeup... "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" is the final time he was in front of the camera and he barely could move and was just so thin. They made the music video black and white to hide how sick he looked in person.

This must have all been heartbreaking for the other 3 members.

Always be safe guys. Don't believe HIV is not an issue anymore...

Well he had Aids, what did you expect?

I love this song. So beautiful.

R2 I agree. My sisters hate it. I always wonder why. Dumb asses have no taste.

I don't think I've ever seen or heard this before. Thanks for posting.

His voice had such a beautiful unique sound. Thanks for posting it.

R4, R5 no problem. It’s very beautiful and sad. And true.

A reminder it was all an act. You can see him trying to pull of the rock star attitude - but the brutal awareness of impending death and the meaninglessness of the rock star god role shine through. But a rare visual and very visceral reminder of the ravages and cruelty of AIDS at its peak. Repeated thousands of times in hospital beds, apartments and childhood bedrooms. How do you ever let go of the sadness and loss of so many - and our own youth.

George and Lisa did a nice job performing the song at Freddie’s tribute concert.

Love the song too. Freddie and George's version. A lot of melancholy in it. Makes me a tad sad.

This got me listening to Somebody To Love by George Michael. He was really so so talented (I guess I forgot how talented).

I think he was sending out his love to all of us.

R11 His Aids, he infected so many, he sent his Aids out, the sack of shit

It makes you wonder. Who was he singing to: his long-term girlfriend who he ultimately left everything to, or his partner of 7 years he left about $1M who got chucked out days after his death.

R13 Mary stuck by him no matter what since 1970. She was there through his final days also.

21 years vs 7 years. You can’t compare.

And $1 million in 1991 was worth a lot.

R12 is a cunt.

I remember the song well. Not a favorite of mine but it was truly sad to see him looking like that.

The Mary inheritance thing reminds you Freddy wasn’t a gay hero. He used the freedom and sexual excess created and allowed by gay rights activists to enjoy himself. But never really gave back politically, financially or emotionally. The distribution of his money shows a lot about what was important to him - and I honestly think a lot of it was to prop up his semi-hetero facade. It wasn’t to help gay men in general or even the specific gay men he supposedly loved and who loved him.

I feel sorrow about his death and like all who died from AIDS, sympathy. But I’m not buying the “Freddy was a hero” myth that is being forced on us - and, in fact, feel anger at him for using the gay rights movement for his own pleasure and the musical worship for his own enrichment - which he left to a woman to spend.

He looks like Julie Andrews in that video.

Now this song is stuck in my head. I strongly relate to the lyrics, like the sound of it, and the video is somewhat haunting, knowing he died shortly after it was filmed. Somehow I feel sad he died, even though it was 27 years ago.

I'm R4 and R19. I have listened to this at least 10 times since I saw this post.

R20 if you read comments beneath the video, many would agree with you on this song, his voice and how haunting the video is.

He looks like a vampire here. In a memoir by Elton John he talked about his friend Freddie Mercury and how heartbreaking it was to see such a vital man so debilitated and ruined by AIDs.

i have so much respect for people like mercury who are so very clearly ill but show up in life to honor their commitments. they can stay home, curled up in the fetal position asking 'why me'? but they squeeze the last drop of the essence of life, they live their lives they do not live to die. if im ever ill i hope to have one tenth of their courage and willpower.

I believe he left his male partner 1 million pounds, not 1 million US. That's a hefty sum for 1991. Plus who knows how much money he received during their 7 year relationship - and what assets and items he was given before he died.

Plus I thought he also provided for his sister and mom. I don't call that asshole behavior. Who knows what understanding he had with his ex-girlfriend? There are royalties still being made today and maybe he trusted her to provide to charities / other.

It's no one's business who we leave our money and assets to. And it certainly doesn't make him less gay or groundbreaking.

He left the vast majority of his wealth, including his home and recording royalties, to a woman named Mary Austin and the remainder to his parents and sister. It's said his relationship with Austin was the most important one he had. He called her his only true friend. In a 1985 interview, Mercury said of Austin, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary [Austin], but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary, and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that's enough for me." He also wrote several songs about Austin, the most notable of which is "Love of My Life". Seems he might have been like Montgomery Clift. Clift's deep emotional attachments were with women, but he preferred men for sex.

Nose Job? He was terrified of his voice not being the same if his teeth were fixed. You'd think a nose job might do the same damage.

Cocaine use might have changed the appearance of his nose, though.

He should have stopped doing everything he could to look more white

STFU Mary! People can bareback all they want, it is human nature to want it raw.

R4/R19/R20 here. This song and video is still so stuck in my head. I'm of an age where I should have seen this 27 years ago but for some reason I never saw it until this thread. I don't even remember hearing the song until now. I can't stop re-playing it. Very deep, very haunting. I feel disturbed but oddly somehow in a good way. Sort of like pain opens up people to feelings. I don't know if that even makes sense to anyone else. Thank you OP again for posting.

Lol. You’re welcome R32

It’s from their Innuendo album.

R29, he has obvious signs of rinoplasty that cocaine cannot replicate.

R34 yes, he definitely had his nose worked on... for whatever the reasons.

Its a shame he did anything possible to be as "white" as possible. But no matter how thin his nose or light his skin, he always had an ethnic face.

Just own it.

It is obvious he is quite ill and that is heartbreaking. The history of US is littered with neglectof its citizens due to race, sexuality or economic status, we really should demand more of our government. Rock Hudson should not have been required to go to France to seek treatment. When it comes to R&D this country needs to get out of the war business and focus on improving the lives of its citizen’s: infrastructure, medical R&D, public education, all of that.

We should be leading the world in Medical care and we SHOULD have been doing this in the 80’s and not had to wait a deacade for Bill Clinton to get serious about addressing that horrible nightmare of death.

I think Freddie looked hot in the Radio Ga-Ga video, although I hate the video. It makes me think of monarch programming

Yes I remember when that song came out briefly before he passed away. Which is why indiscriminate bareback sex is a dangerous thing.

Yes he was conflicted racially and did bleach and have a nose job. He was also close to Michael Jackson who encouraged him to make a dance tune hence another one bites the dust so there’s that.

You can tell he bleached his skin... in photos before he was "Freddie Mercury" he had brown skin, then suddenly he was super fair skinned.

And you can see he got a nose job in that video, look at how botched the nostrils are.

MJ did tell them to do a dance track, Deeky wrote the song and arrangement though.

This entire album is pretty haunting to me. There is something about the sound of it that stays with you and there is something eerie about it.

Don't visit a hospice, OP.

R42 I am not OP but I hate Hospitals. Hate them.

Didn't say "hospitals." But whatever!

Yes, I know you’re speaking about homes for the terminally ill. But I’m saying I hate hospitals, so I couldn’t even imagine going to one of those places. I would probably pass out.

R36 that’s called socialism 😜

"in photos before he was "Freddie Mercury" he had brown skin, then suddenly he was super fair skinned. "

R40 has never heard of suntans!

You see, R40, suntans are these things that can cause people to look brown-skinned when they've spent a lot of time in sunny places like Africa or India, and which tend to go away in places like Great Britain and leave a person looking all pale.

Well, he had a point that Mary had loved him when he was just another unknown struggling artist. She fell in love with the real person, not the rock star. Also, in the early days, when he was engaged to her, it was the only time in his life when he felt like he had a "normal" life where he didn't have to hide anything.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

he had unsafe sex with men after he knew he was HIV positive. He was a massive pile of shit. he is no icon. he is and was and always will be fucking dumpster trash evil nasty self obsessed destructive child man. And fucking ugly.

I was never a huge Queen fan at the time but they had several undeniably great songs - this isn’t one of them. It sounds like a crappy MOR tune by some forgotten band - not Queen. And he DOES look like Julie Andrews here.

"Also, in the early days, when he was engaged to her, it was the only time in his life when he felt like he had a "normal" life where he didn't have to hide anything. "

Well, I presume he had to hide a lot of penises from Mary!

But yeah, I do suspect that like a lot of men from conservative cultures, Mercury would have been happy to marry Mary and pop out kids, and troll for dick on the side - that's just how gay and bi men live in much of the world..Mercury never came out to the public and I've heard he never came out to his parents, maybe that's part of the reason for such unhealthy behavior. Well, that and the drugs.

If he's become a gay icon and symbol of inclusion it wasn't intentional on his part, but he did end up showing the mainstream that a gay man can be super-cool, super-talented, the highest level of rock star... which still being unapologetically flaming. So he's had a positive effect for gay rights, even if he never intended to.

[quote]If he's become a gay icon and symbol of inclusion it wasn't intentional on his part, but he did end up showing the mainstream that a gay man can be super-cool, super-talented, the highest level of rock star... which still being unapologetically flaming. So he's had a positive effect for gay rights, even if he never intended to.

Queen's fans were predominantly heterosexual men. Despite Freddie, the group never had a huge gay following in the way Madonna did, or a predominantly women in the way George Michael's fan base built up. Mercury may not have been as political as other openly gay front men of that era - Marc Almond, Jimmy Somerville, Andy Bell - but he earned the respect of straight men and women and they were devastated when he died.

The response to the Freddie Mercury tribute concert was incredible - seeing all these amazing artists pay tribute to a gay man who had died of AIDS.

Incidentally there was a review in a British newspaper when Bohemian Rhapsody came out, and the reviewer was dismissive of the focus on the other band members and complained about the absence of songs Mercury had written about his HIV status - Who Wants To Live Forever, The Show Must Go On and These Are The Days Of Our Lives. It was pointed out that Brian May, not Mercury, wrote the first two, and Roger Taylor wrote the latter.

OP you’re totally fucking clueless. You should have walked the streets of New York in the 80s and 90s. Freddie looked great compared to some of those guys.

The makeup is too pale but he looks okay.

This thread got me wondering if anyone here has seen Queen Nation perform live? It's a tribute band and they are pretty damn good.

R47 sweetie, both his parents were brown until the day they died.

R56, I've seen Queen Nation and they're brilliant. Much better than the queen/adam lambett touring show.

Freddie was a music and vocal genius, but he also was an old school self hating closet case who overcompensated. A flawed human being.

[quote]He looks like Julie Andrews in that video.

I couldn't decide if it was Julie Andrews or Helen Reddy. Gosh, that's a terrible song. They didn't have much aesthetic principle, did they? The rockabilly song is the only one I still enjoy hearing.

R59, He was mot a closet case. He died in 1991 before people coming outnpublicly was expecred.

It’s not that he was a closet case. It’s that back then coming out would have destroyed what he built.

From today's perspective he lived in the closet until he died.

R63, Well that's retarded because he never lived in today's world.

r64, I live and post in the present. If you think that's retarded then go back to your own timeline.

R65 you post in modern time but if you’re going to discuss the past you need to know what you’re speaking about. That or just stay quiet.

Why are you so offended by the use of closet case? Does it trigger you like queer?

This is the same past where Jimmy Sommerville was out and proud and was a gay activist.

R68 are you kidding?! Talk about leaving tons of info out.

Some Freddie related gossip from a recent gossip thread:

Freddie Mercury introduced Princess Diana to oral and anal sex. The story about partying with her in a gay club is shit. He got in a car with her and spent 3 days teaching her about sex. Hairdresser who knew his late partner told me but said nobody ever said because they liked her and pitied her. Charles would only fuck her missionary style every 3 weeks and after 1984, NEVER. If she was POZ we will never know.

Another interesting tid bit Freddie Mercury's last partner's hairdresser friend said was that the reason his last partner and Mary Austin's husband both turned on her after his death was that they found out about some weird shit the two of them were doing. Apparently he liked to call her "mamma" and they had some bizarre "love-making" that was really not sex like fucking because he was totally gay but more like role-playing, especially when she was pregnant or lactating. Says they had keys to each other's bedrooms. That made his partner very upset and prone to drown his sorrow in booze.

She invited men into the bedroom in the second year of their relationship to "help Freddie out" and would pack his lube, sex toys, and, sadly, later medication, diapers, and drive him to blood transfusions. A man who lived at the house said she was "his mother" but does not dare say more as he signed a non-disclosure as did Freddie's partner and others in the house and are afraid of the powerful lawyers she has.

I personally don't buy that neither her husband or his partner had a clue, I think both were damn well aware but liked living rent-free in a palace in Kensington.

" It’s that back then coming out would have destroyed what he built. "

Freddie's good pal Elton John came out in the seventies and it didn't ruin Elton's career!

Honestly, I think he could have come out in the 80s with no real change to his career, by then everybody knew and the band had fuck-you money. I mean, he'd been outed by the rags multiple times and was performing in Tom of Finland t-shirts for fuck's sake! But I think his family/cultural background was a factor there, Zoroastrianism isn't a gay-friendly religion.

[quote] He was mot a closet case. He died in 1991 before people coming outnpublicly was expecred.

Holy shit, dude! Proofread FFS!

I hate the argument that just because something didn’t harm one person it wouldn’t harm another.

Coming out would harm Freddie’s career because his fan base wasn’t exactly the same as Elton John’s.

[quote] Freddie's good pal Elton John came out in the seventies and it didn't ruin Elton's career!

Bullshit!

Elton was deep in the closet until at least the 1990s. He married his second wife in 1984 for Christ sake.

No, Elton came out in the mid-seventies. I recently read Elton's autobiography and he discussed the time he told an interviewer he was looking for love with "... women and men" or whatever, and I remember the resulting tempest in a teapot from when I was in high school. Elton now says it didn't affect his sales, but I remember his popularity tanking until the early 80s and "I'm Still Standing". But the fact is, Elton's career didn't end after coming out in the mid 1970s, the old bitch is STILL at it all these decades later, and Mercury couldn't have missed it as he and Elton were pals and he would have heard Elton bitch about every bit of it.

However, I think Mercury's family and cultural background were a big part of the reason he stayed in the closet, or officially stayed in the closet. Like I said, by the 1980s, everybody knew Freddie was gay, even the kids at my high school in Nowhere, USA.

Most people didn’t know he was gay.

I remember a group of us sitting in history class in 8th grade, in 1977, discussing Elton John and we all knew he was gay. I don't think he had come out - it was just obvious, from the way he dressed, mostly.

Elton John the fat cunt did not come out in the Seventies. What a fucking lie.

R77 lies. Most boys didn’t think of anything gay back then. Gayness was foreign to most.

Even after years of being together, Jim Hutton still had to pretend to be just the gardener when Freddie's parents came to visit.

Oh, for fuck's sake, R78!

Freddie Mercury might not have said I'M A GAY HOMOSEXUAL MAN during an interview, but the idea that he was in the closet is ridiculous.

Everyone knew he was queer/gay. Everyone. The idea that people would have been shocked that he was a gay man is ridiculous. And his (mostly straight) fans loved Freddie despite/because of him being gay.

Worth noting that the first piece of legislation on gay rights for 25 years was tabled in the UK parliament within 2 years of his death. a Currie (a Jewish Tory woman) wanted to equalise the age of consent at 16 but it was reduced to 18 as a "compromise".

Freddie Mercury might not have said I'M A GAY HOMOSEXUAL MAN during an interview, but the idea that he was in the closet is ridiculous.

Everyone knew he was queer/gay. Everyone. The idea that people would have been shocked that he was a gay man is ridiculous. And his (mostly straight) fans loved Freddie despite/because of him being gay.

Worth noting that the first piece of legislation on gay rights for 25 years was tabled in the UK parliament within 2 years of his death. a Currie (a Jewish Tory woman) wanted to equalise the age of consent at 16 but it was reduced to 18 as a "compromise".

That’s a lie though. Most didn’t know Liberace was gay either

At least bassist John Deacon got rid of his lame-ass perm.

Gotta love people who claim coming out wouldn’t ruin his career. A true re-write of history.

Tell Billy Squire that, whose career was damaged by the perception of homosexuality in one video. And yes, that was the issue. Billy dancing around in a pink top in a dark lit bedroom was perceived as gay and his fans etc. abandoned him.

R87 also Billy’s “singing” voice was pure shit

I think Freddie looked fat!

R88 he was charting and breaking records before that video came out. The song itself was gaining momentum and radio play before the actual video came out. Once the video came, the fans, critics and even other rock stars ditched him. Critics trashed the video for its gay undertones.

He was an amazing talent. Thanks OP.

I never liked Queen because it reeked of gimmicry.

Freddie didn't deny being gay, he denied having AIDS until a day or two before his death. I remember the Enquirer or some such paper publishing pictures of him and he already looked like a corpse. Horrifying. I can't find the photo I'm remembering, but these are of near his end.

R94 that doesn’t even look like him.

Granted he did all he could to look like a WASP

Sorry - don’t think it’s heroic soaking up attention as a rock “star” and indulging in all the gay world had to offer without doing anything to help it. I also will never understand why someone who is dying needs to do that. These are the last days of your life - you really want to be acting in front of a camera instead of living and feeling life?

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