Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor have opened up about Freddie Mercury’s sexuality in a new interview.
On 19 June, music enthusiasts were treated to Adam Lambert’s new documentary, Adam Lambert: Out, Loud and Proud, which premiered on ITV.
Through a series of candid interviews with MNEK, Erasure’s Andy Bell, and Skunk Anasie’s Skin, the former American Idol star dives into the decades-long fight British LGBTQIA+ artists have endured to achieve equality in the music industry.
The synopsis adds: “Adam Lambert: Out, Loud and Proud is a powerful tribute to the resilience and revolutionary spirit of LGBTQ+ artists who have transformed the music world while fighting for equality.”
In addition to the aforementioned artists, the documentary also features an in-depth interview with Queen members May and Taylor, who spoke about Mercury’s incredible impact and how he would have reacted to being called queer.
“The vocabulary has changed a lot. Queer was a word you wouldn’t want to use. I would never have used it to Freddie, and he would have been upset if we had,” Brian explained to Lambert, per The Sunday Times.
“He would have said, ‘I’m not queer, I’m normal, darling’ because queer meant odd and weird. It’s hard to talk about Freddie as a queer musician. He would say: ‘I’m a musician, darling. That’s all I want to tell you.'”
Over the years, the term “queer” has been reclaimed by many LGBTQIA+ individuals as a positive affirming umbrella term.
Elsewhere in their interview, the legendary duo reflected on the homophobia they faced as a band in the US, highlighting MTV’s refusal to play their music video for ‘I Want To Break Free’ as a prime example.
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In the iconic visual inspired by the legendary UK soap Coronation Street, Mercury and his bandmates are dressed in full drag –with the Queen frontman wearing a black mini-skirt, a sleeveless blouse and a wig.
“It was a joke. It was meant to be a parody of a very famous soap opera in the UK,” Taylor said.
May went on to claim that homophobia in the US impacted the band’s commercial performance in the country.
“There’s a whole sequence of hits that were massive all around the world but not in the United States. We didn’t get a hit until Freddie [passed away,]” he explained.
“I remember Freddie saying, ‘We won’t get the States back until I f***ing die.'”
Before the release of his documentary, Lambert gave insight into how his candid conversation with May and Taylor came to be.
“They’re not usually comfortable speaking about Freddie’s sexuality on camera – they respect his privacy. But we found a way to speak about it in a respectful manner,” the ‘Runnin’ singer explained via The Mirror.
“It wasn’t revealing secrets. It was how it informed him as a creative and artist, a human and bandmate.”
Lambert, who has performed and collaborated with Queen for over a decade, went on to praise May and Taylor for opening up to him.
“I always try to honour Freddie. Everything I do on a stage is a tribute to him,” he added.
“I’m honoured that they felt comfortable with me and open to talk about their experience with Freddie and his experience as a queer man in a time where it was taboo to talk about it publicly.”
You can stream Adam Lambert: Out, Loud and Proud now on ITVX.
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