Freddie died on November 24, 1991. It was just 24 hours after he released a statement confirming his health status. The press and public had speculated for the past few years as his physical appearance changed. Freddie and his closest friends had known for four years and one of those closest to the star in his final years tells Express Online the inspiring way his dear friend dealt with the news and how it affected his life.
Peter Freestone was Freddie’s PA for the last 12 years of his life and one of three people who lived full-time with the Queen frontman at One Garden Lodge. He was there when Freddie recived his HIV diagnosis and he was there at the very end, holding Freddie’s hand.
Peter moving describes how Freddie dealt with the terrible news: “He said, ‘Never regret anything. You’re wasting time when you can’t change it. Get on with what you want to do.
“When he received the diagnosis… He thought he was sick in 1986 and it was confirmed in 1987. He didn’t get depressed. He wasn’t afraid. It was a fact he was going to die. In those days there was absolutely nothing could change that. So he got on with his music. He did so much in those last four years, much more than in the years just before that.”
What is so extraordinary is how Freddie never quite grasped the incredible way his music would live on.
Freddie left all the future revenues from his music to ex-girlfriend Mary Austin and his family, but Peter points out one remarkable detail.
He says: “It’s 28 years since he died and I don’t think he would have dreamed in his wildest dreams Queen and his music would still be so popular. He knew there might be a film, some of the music might still be remembered.
“But if you look at his will, the right to his music was set for 50 years and it would be dissolved. After 30 years he is as big as he ever was, but in 20 years the Mercury Estate will be wound up and then what happens to the rights?”
In fact, Freddie was famously dismissive of his music.
Peter recalls: “He would say about his songs, ‘It’s like a tissue, you pick it up, you use it, you throw it away. I think he was being a bit flippant but he never thought or wanted people to live their lives by his music. He wouldn’t believe everything that is happening now.”
Had Freddie lived, Peter is sure teh music woudl still be pouring out of him, but he’s not so sure FReddie woudl be touring liek Queen is now.
“I think he didn’t want to become old. He was a rock star and he filled that stage. I don’t think he would have kept going. He would have been like, ‘Darling, I’ll write the music but you go out and perform it with someone else.’
“Freddie would have felt he was letting fans down because he couldn’t give them his show. He said, ‘Queen will never be four guys who come of stage, sing their songs and go.’
“But he would still be writing music. That would never have stopped. Ever.”
Peter is promoting the new box set Never Boring, which collects all of Freddie’s solo works, as well as rare and unseen photos, sketches, notes and thoughts. Never Boring” The Freddie Mercury Solo Box Set is out now