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

I doubt it, Freddie had previously had many problems resulting from vocal nodules, reaching a climax in Japan-1979, but never got to spit blood.

Instead, spitting blood, if it seems more consistent with the idea that may have had a throat infection, caused by inflammation of the lymph nodes, which is the initial symptom of a person recently infected with HIV.

Him spitting blood has nothing to with lymph nodes or HIV/AIDS. That blood-spitting was nodule related. At least one of the nodules had to have burst or ruptured from the strain of singing. Listen to his voice pre-Sun City, then in 1985--his tone cleared up.

Gregsynth wrote: Him spitting blood has nothing to with lymph nodes or HIV/AIDS. That blood-spitting was nodule related. At least one of the nodules had to have burst or ruptured from the strain of singing. Listen to his voice pre-Sun City, then in 1985--his tone cleared up.

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That blood spitting was told in the press. So do you believe it? As Peter Freestone told in your 'debate' he can't remember it and if it had happened he would. On the other hand.... maybe Peter wasn't there at the moment.

People emailed me personally and/or Youtube messaged me this information. I also had this confirmed at the Breakthru 2011 Queen convention--someone told me that a friend of theirs attended a couple of the Sun City shows--and Freddie lost his voice at one of them and was coughing up stuff on stage.

I also googled "spitting blood" and some results led to stuff related to smoking and throat/lung irritation (since Freddie was a smoker--this could also be a reason).

Thanks for this thread btw.

All i can say is that when i was at the Knebworth gig i noticed something different about Freddie.Couldnt put my finger on it tho.You see,when i used to go to gigs,i liked to be as close to the stage as i can get.So that i can see the band with my own two eyes.Rather than look at a screen or whatever.I have been that close in the past that i have been hit in the face with Roger's sweat at one of his The Cross gigs.I have also been hit in the face with one of Freddie's towels during the Hot Space tour.

I just remember looking at Freddie during the Knebworth gig and thinking"There's something wrong with you".It wasnt what he was doing onstage.Cos that was fine.It was something in the way he looked.

TCC Wrote
I think up to the Magic Tour, it was just lingering suspicions that he might have HIV but there was a hope he could escape this fate.  You can see in the Wembley DVDs that he was still in high spirits.  However, in the music videos for the Miracle album he looked very sombre.  The contrast in mood is very clear.

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You can tell also just how much weight freddie had lost, not so much in the I Want it all video but definetly by breakthru he was showing signs of big weight loss

Interesting original post and thread

There is indeed a very strong case that Freddie knew during the Magic Tour, I agree with all the posts that say he looked/felt different. Never did he say "see you next time" to a Magic Tour audience.

That's why fans fantasizing about a farewell tour for The Miracle are looking at it the wrong way; The Magic Tour was the farewell tour indeed.

Then The Miracle was supposed to be just that, a miracle:  doctors couldn't know Freddie still had Innuendo + additional Made in Heaven sessions in him

Fone Bone wrote: Interesting original post and thread

There is indeed a very strong case that Freddie knew during the Magic Tour, I agree with all the posts that say he looked/felt different. Never did he say "see you next time" to a Magic Tour audience.

That's why fans fantasizing about a farewell tour for The Miracle are looking at it the wrong way; The Magic Tour was the farewell tour indeed.

Then The Miracle was supposed to be just that, a miracle:  doctors couldn't know Freddie still had Innuendo + additional Made in Heaven sessions in him

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Freddie was told to have little more than a few months to live in late 1989 so the fact that he has managed to survive with the desease for another 2 years is a true "Miracle". For me he contracted the virus in 1983-circa and the HIV-positive condition persisted till the mid-end of 1986 when the illness developed in full blown AIDS. For a comparison just look at the "A kind of magic" video then after "Who wants to live forever": he seems here more skinny and pale so for me at this time (Sept. 1986) he was already ill.

Anyway my opinion on when he discovered to be ill is this: he took the first test in 1985 when he was going steady with Jim Hutton and became aware of the death of some of his friends and lovers (after the 39th birthday party organized as a farewell gesture to his frantic gay-life style) which gave him negative reply (due to the fact that the test in those days was pretty inaccurate as it's stated in Ozzy Osbourne autobiography "I am Ozzy" when he talks about the HIV-test that he made in 1986 after a night passed in company of a prostitute: the test said that he was HIV-postitive but after a reexamination of the results the doctor came to the conclusion that he only had a severe deficiency of the immune system due to an excessive use of alcohol and drugs). Then there were the exams prior of the Magic Tour and here he found to be HIV-positive but in a way he managed to hide the results to the band members and his family (due to professional secrecy between doctor and patient) find an accord with the insurance company with putting togheter a smaller tour of only European countries that would not overly stress his body (in order to distract the band he began to tell excuses like "I'm tired to be on tour", signals are also the fact that after every concert he never said "See you next time" and the answer he gave to the Hungarian journalist after the question "Will you come back in the future here in Hungary?" when he said "If I'm still alive I'll come back") and began secretly the cures. Anyway it was too late so in the same year the illnes developed into full blown AIDS but he discovered this only in April 1987 due to the lesions he found on his body.

A link that talks about the HIV test of Ozzy Osbourne: http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/10/05/ozzy_osbourne_doctors_told_me_i_had_aids

I am not doubting anyone's guess but I think the insurance aspect is not so convincing for the following reasons:

1.  It is not possible to hide the insurance arrangement from the other band members - in one interview Freddie said that the band would not sign anything unless John Deacon had confirmed that the documents were in order.

2.  Brian had revealed that the Magic Tour was the first time that the band made money on a tour.  That means they were taking in the sales and expenses on their own account and they did not sell the concert to a concert promoter.  Therefore, there is no need to buy insurance for any liability to a concert promoter if they cannot perform due to ill health etc.  If the concert does not go through, they just need to refund the ticket sales and lose money on the expenses incurred.

(My two cents worth of opinion :-) )

My Opinion: 1983 - New York - The HIV virus can live for years in the human body without being detected.

Read also this: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ozzy-Osbourne-A-Faithful-Husband-After-Aids-Test-9397.shtml

Sharon says: "I knew from my gay friends that in those days (the 80's) the test was so unsophisticated and delicate that it only had to be shaken and you could get the wrong result..."

So the supposition of the wrong result seems credible, maybe also the test before of the Magic Tour gave an incorrect result.

So potentially the marks on his arm at live aid could of been signs that he was showing signs of the disease? Or maybe they were just general bruises

freddiefan91 wrote: So potentially the marks on his arm at live aid could of been signs that he was showing signs of the disease? Or maybe they were just general bruises

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Those marks were present also when he played with Queen at Montreux Pop Festival in 1984, but I think that those were only general bruises 'cause the signs of the Kaposi's Sarcoma appear only in an advanced stage of the disease (full blown AIDS) and rarely when the subject is only HIV-positive.