Freddie loved the Jackson 5, and was an avid fan of Michael Jackson long before he became the face of Queen. When returning from his tour in South America, Freddie almost recorded a song with the king of pop. But there was something about Jackson that didn’t quite sit well with Mercury.
For some reason, they were never in agreement when trying to record or were never in the same country long enough to finish. Already frustrated, things came to a definite end after Freddie called his band to come pick him up from the recording studio because Michael Jackson had brought a llama with him!
His Secret Sexual Identity
Austin inspired the beautiful song, “Love of My Life”. And to some degree, she was and always will be. But after a six-year engagement, and Freddie growing more distant than ever, Austin decided to end their romantic relationship and broke it off. She was convinced he was having an affair.
When confronted by Austin, Freddie decided it was time to tell his best friend the truth - he was bisexual. Austin, in turn, told him she was convinced he wasn’t bisexual, but gay. She told him she’d known this deep down for a very long time, but understood that Mercury was still struggling with his sexual identity. Regardless, they remained close friend for the rest of Freddie’s life.
Mercury Meets Another "Love of His Life"
After coming out as a bisexual, Freddie started dating men and women. Until one night, in 1984, Freddie met Jim Hutton in a bar. They became close, and by 1985, were basically inseparable.
Mercury and Hutton kept their private lives to themselves. In fact, it wasn’t until recently that Hutton decided to share their story with the world, through his autobiography, Mercury and Me. They stayed together until Freddie’s death, in 1991. Hutton stayed by his side through it all.
Worldwide Praise
“A Night at the Opera” was a very expensive album for its time. Its production cost around $500,000, which was an absurd amount of money back in 1975. There’s a reason why “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Love of My Life” were such colossal hits. Just for “Bohemian Rhapsody”, they had to use six different recording studios!
This album finally started to bring fame and money to Queen, and by the 1980’s, everyone knew about Queen. And their success crossed continents, because in 1981 they received a call saying that they were to go on a tour in South America. Apparently, Argentina and Brazil were crazy about Queen!
Queen Got A Huge Offer
The band was shocked, especially after getting an offer to do a concert in a massive soccer stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. First of all, they were doubtful of whether they could actually fill an entire soccer stadium, and secondly, they were hesitant about visiting a country that was still very much under dictatorship.
Nonetheless, Queen decided to go for it, and soon enough, they were in conversations with the country’s Army General to decide whether they could put together a concert that could hold more than 50,000 people in a single space. Afraid of big crowd riots, the general had his doubts, but Queen still decided to take the risk.