Brian May and Roger Taylor ‘tempted to laugh’ when they first heard Freddie sing

Virgin Radio

21 Sep 2021, 10:25

In a new interview the Queen drummer shares new details about Freddie’s beginnings in the band.

Taylor and May met Mercury at college in the late 1960s. The pair were already in a band, Smile, with fellow student Tim Staffel. When Staffel left the band, Freddie was eager to step in and join. 

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Taylor said that the first time they heard Freddie sing “He was so extreme, one was tempted to laugh at first, because he hadn’t developed his voice; he didn’t have the control he had later,”

“But he had this thrusting energy and zeal for everything. And, really, a massive array of hidden talents. We were big pals.”

Taylor added: “We had a stall in Kensington Market and he was so delightful, just great to be around, with a tremendous lust for life. He sort of invented himself.”

The 72 year old drummer credits this enthusiasm and chemistry between the band members with their massive success through the 1970s and 80s.

“We were a gang, very tight-knit. The whole thing was greater than the sum of the parts. We were very lucky with that chemistry. Fred had an incredible faith in us and our path. As he would endlessly say: ‘Talent will out, my dears!’”

Guitarist Brian May, 74, seconded this feeling while reminiscing about Freddie’s passion for the group.

“He would still be saying ‘Oh I need to do my solo stuff’, but he would be coming back to the family to do what we do,” he told Greatest Hits Radio.

“The funny thing is I feel more and more that he is kind of with us in a way, maybe I’m getting to be an old romantic, but Freddie is in my day every day.”

“He’s always in my thoughts and I can always feel what he’d say in a certain situation, oh what would Freddie think, ah he’d like this, he’d laugh at this or whatever. He’s so much part of the legacy we created, that will always be the case.”