Freddie Mercury's HIV Diagnosis – Some Insight – 1985 to 1987

Just listening to the "Queen On Air" interviews and there is one on disc 5 (84 or 85, not sure atm, would have to check) in which the interviewer gives an introduction stating how fit Freddie is, what a fitness freak he is and generally how well he looks... until he opens his mouth! And that's not a paraphrase, he means it literally, as then he describes quite graphically the state of Freddie's tongue and says "it's probably the most unhealthy thing you have ever seen". Jeez, immediately struck me as one of the signs of the looming drama.

It's sad to watch all his photo's from 1983 till 1991,

You must concentrate on his eyes, eyes tell you everything..

My father said to me when I let him show Queen's pressphotos from The Works, Freddie didn't look not so healthy, so I laughed at him, but maybe he was right...

[QUOTE] [b]k-m wrote:[/b]

Just listening to the "Queen On Air" interviews and there is one on disc 5 (84 or 85, not sure atm, would have to check) in which the interviewer gives an introduction stating how fit Freddie is, what a fitness freak he is and generally how well he looks... until he opens his mouth! And that's not a paraphrase, he means it literally, as then he describes quite graphically the state of Freddie's tongue and says "it's probably the most unhealthy thing you have ever seen". Jeez, immediately struck me as one of the signs of the looming drama.[/QUOTE]

Because presumably the interiewer stayed peaking at Freddie's tongue every time he opened his mouth?

How often do you even see someone else's tongue unless they're poking it out? He pokes it out in several pics and it looks ok. https://badassalterego.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/freddy-6.jpg

When you are very active sexually, you pick up stuff every now and then. Most of it is treatable by antibiotics.

[QUOTE] [b]Costa86 wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]k-m wrote:[/b]

Just listening to the "Queen On Air" interviews and there is one on disc 5 (84 or 85, not sure atm, would have to check) in which the interviewer gives an introduction stating how fit Freddie is, what a fitness freak he is and generally how well he looks... until he opens his mouth! And that's not a paraphrase, he means it literally, as then he describes quite graphically the state of Freddie's tongue and says "it's probably the most unhealthy thing you have ever seen". Jeez, immediately struck me as one of the signs of the looming drama.[/QUOTE]

Because presumably the interiewer stayed peaking at Freddie's tongue every time he opened his mouth?

How often do you even see someone else's tongue unless they're poking it out? He pokes it out in several pics and it looks ok. https://badassalterego.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/freddy-6.jpg

When you are very active sexually, you pick up stuff every now and then. Most of it is treatable by antibiotics.

[/QUOTE]

Well, I suspect one doesn't say "the most unhealthy thing you have ever seen" without a reason. You haven't been there and haven't chatted to Freddie on that day, so you can't just reject this story, because you saw some photos over the years and his tongue looked fine. I also remember reading in one of the books that he developed some nasty growth in that area, while still living in Munich, I think Barbara Valentin described it with reference to him becoming ill.

Gross! Lol.

My nan and my uncle both had 'unhealthy' looking tongues before they died, nothing really gross, more of a white covering (but a bit more than healthy people sometimes get). I was told it was an imbalance causing overgrowth of candida. We may all have it but our bodies keep it in check usually.

I heard that interview, and having lived in that time as well, I think the interviewer just noticed it, thought it looked unhealthy and thought he'd mention it because it showed that Freddie had been genuinely ill when he'd cancelled the earlier interview. I didn't get the impression he was thinking of AIDS at that point. it was still a bit too early. It might not seem it looking at the history and timelines, but for ordinary people (and I include Freddie and the interviewer in that) it was still perceived as something that could threaten us in the UK but was still remote at that time.

Oh God stop this fucking shit, please.

fucking shit. ... and here we go with the Fudge-packing jokes. .... it never ends

It is a subject thats been gone over and over, but with the right tone/ respect and all that i think it can be done tastefully & it is somewhat interesting..also adds to some context of the courage/strength of the guy.   i thought id add this new insight - 

“It was during the U.S. leg of the tour that Freddie pursued his desire for gay sex in New York and on September 25th, while appearing on Saturday Night Live, he began exhibiting some symptoms associated with someone recently infected with HIV. In fact, he had secretly seen a doctor in the city some weeks earlier suffering from a white lesion on his tongue (likely to be hairy leukoplakia, one of the first signs of HIV infection) and this points to the period between 26th July and 13th August 1982 when Freddie contracted HIV during a break in the tour in New York.”

The tour continued between those dates, but there were indeed two nights in New York (July 27/28).

Interesting - where'd you find this?

I think this is from the book "Somebody to Love: The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury" by Richards and Langthorne, published late 2016. Have it but never finished reading it. Felt that some stuff in it was not supported by hard facts or at least solid evidence.

I think, given Freddie's promiscuity, it's really an exercise in futility trying to discern when he got HIV (leaving aside the fact that it's a very morbid topic). If he contracted it in 1982, I think this wouldn't really fit in with the 8-10 year latency period of the virus before AIDS develops (granted it can develop in much less time, but this is the average). We know he had AIDS by 1987, so that's only 5 years. It's certainly possible - especially since multiple exposures following the first exposure (likely I think, given his legendary sexual apetite) can lead to HIV super-infection, which would speed things up.

Freddie was in New York in November 1978 on the Jazz Tour. He was also in New York in September 1980 on The Game Tour. He could just as likely have contracted it then. Just because he was treated for an infection in 1982 doesn't mean this was when he contracted HIV. For all we know he could have been treated for something similar in 1978 or 1980. But the likelihood is that he did indeed catch it in New York. Given what we know about the incubation period of HIV, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd go for 1978 or 1980, not 1982. I think the latency period is a surer way of speculating than treatment for an infection. And if he was indeed infected in 1978 or 1980, then this would even fit in with the infection of 1982.

The author of the book also suggest that Freddie met with Gaetan Dugas, aka the infamous patient zero (but he wasn't really patient zero). There is absolutely no evidence for this, and for those with some knowledge of HIV/AIDS history, the claim is very outrageous.

And I'm not really sure to what end all this is being discussed. It's not going to perform a resurrection, nor is it going to produce video footage of it happening. Not that we'd want that, I'd like to think.

[QUOTE] [b]k-m wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]Costa86 wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]k-m wrote:[/b]

Just listening to the "Queen On Air" interviews and there is one on disc 5 (84 or 85, not sure atm, would have to check) in which the interviewer gives an introduction stating how fit Freddie is, what a fitness freak he is and generally how well he looks... until he opens his mouth! And that's not a paraphrase, he means it literally, as then he describes quite graphically the state of Freddie's tongue and says "it's probably the most unhealthy thing you have ever seen". Jeez, immediately struck me as one of the signs of the looming drama.[/QUOTE]

Because presumably the interiewer stayed peaking at Freddie's tongue every time he opened his mouth?

How often do you even see someone else's tongue unless they're poking it out? He pokes it out in several pics and it looks ok. https://badassalterego.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/freddy-6.jpg

When you are very active sexually, you pick up stuff every now and then. Most of it is treatable by antibiotics.

[/QUOTE]

Well, I suspect one doesn't say "the most unhealthy thing you have ever seen" without a reason. You haven't been there and haven't chatted to Freddie on that day, so you can't just reject this story, because you saw some photos over the years and his tongue looked fine. I also remember reading in one of the books that he developed some nasty growth in that area, while still living in Munich, I think Barbara Valentin described it with reference to him becoming ill.
[/QUOTE]

HMM... interesting. ... perhaps this inspired Martin L Gore to write SHAKE THE DISEASE. ... (depeche mode)

Meanwhile I`ve gained some informations from the Munich gay scene - or better said what`s left of it - There is only one survivor ( Peter Ambacher)left from his about 35 people sized party entourage. For quite a long time there was a second person, but he died last year.
First time they`ve met was in a Munich gay bath while Freddie just had a towel around his hips.
Freddie also- frequented the "Ochsengarten" wich is a Club for men - looking for quick rough Sex - and nothing else. Today they also offer free Wlan :)
The scene was aware that there is something wrong with sick gay community members in the mid 80`s and that AIDS was the reason for that.

Mr. GrXXXXX ( I know his full name) mentioned that Freddie lowered his trips to Munich exactly when the reaper strikes the scene here.

Exactly when did the reaper strike Munich? I assume it was some time in 1985 or 1986?