When Queen’s frontman and living legend, Freddie Mercury, died, it shocked the world. The main reason people were so surprised is that very few people knew he was ill. His bandmates, the love of his life
Mary Austen, his staff, and his closest friends knew. As for the rest of us, it would have never occurred to us that such a larger-than-life man like Freddie could die so young. However, people who knew him in person, even if they were on the edges of his friend group, probably suspected something was wrong. In fact, rumors circulated that he had AIDS, although Freddie himself didn’t confirm it until the day before he died.
The reason people suspected that something was very wrong with Freddie was that he looked so frail. Never a large man, he was much thinner than he had ever been. His face was gaunt, and the bones stood out. He was also pale. But perhaps the most telling sign that something was wrong was the fact that in the few videos and photos that were out there of his final days, he wasn’t smiling.
Freddie Mercury was an innately cheerful man, and above all, he never complained. Ever. However, he was sad. He wanted to live, and he had a lot that he wanted to give to the world musically.
When Freddie told his close friend
Dave Clark that he was dying of AIDS, Clark said that he didn’t seem down about it. He just carried on. Clark said that Freddie was grateful for everything, and especially for all of his friends. As he lay dying, he had a view of his beloved garden (what we in the U.S. call a yard).
There are tons of stories that tell what Freddie’s
final days were like, but they don’t matter too much. What mattered was how he lived, and he lived hard and loved hard. His legacy will live on forever, and now that the movie
Bohemian Rhapsody has won awards, more generations will know more about Freddie Mercury. The video below shows photos of the last party Freddie ever attended. His grief is written all over his face.
