When I discovered Queen it was back on 1989,beyond the music I didnt knew anything for the past,and when I heard that Freddie died of AIDS,felt surprised(didnt heard the announcement,since local news only announced his death).If I was at simiral age with Freddie back in 1989 and knew the past of the band,and all the stories I have read,I wouldn't be surprised,Freddie's sexual behaviour in the beginning of the 80s went beyond control,and with the rise of AIDS,with cruel mathematics it would surely cost him his life....
I swear to God I remember seeing news of it on MTV I think the day he died...I had to go to school though if I remember correctly. I was fourteen years old I'm not sure I understood what A.I.D.S. even was at that point which honestly I think was more of a sign of the times. BUT with THAT said whilest only being vaguely familiar of Queen with "We Will Rock You" it was REALLY sad and scary. If I recall there was some clip of something of them recording "One Vision" and it was just so personal and VERY creepy in terms of whatever the hell this A.I.D.S. thing was...
To me it was odd .I discovered The Show Must Go On together with the singer AND his death.
It played with my head since i was listening the most vibrant, powerfull thing ever and it was performed from a man who just died, sung while he was dying.
I was 12 and i never heard of a situation where a dying man was so "above" his terminal condition. Like super-human stuff.
In a way Freddie was born and died at the same time for me, those 4:15 minutes of TSMGO.
So he became instantly an Iconic figure and (strangely) AIDS something like a "high profile" disease that only famous people hat it ( Freddie, Rock Hudson, Rudolf Nurejef etc)
I noticed something was wrong when I first saw some stuff about the release of Miracle in the local newspapers, there was a band photo (probably fresh) and he looked quite "different" from not too long ago, mostly Rock in Rio when he was quite healthy and even had a small belly. Then the videos and the voice changes, his face had this plastic appearance, all the weight loss... it was quite obvious. No more speculations or gossip or actually any news then since Miracle's release until the day it happened. We didn't have access to the official statement to the press, just the death announcement the day after, but I wasn't really surprised. I only listened to Innnuendo after he died, I guess I was so disappointed/uncomfortable with Miracle and all that was going to happen anyway (not a matter of if but when) that I didn't want to listen to Innuendo like I did with most of the albums since ADATR, as soon as possible...
I didn't really become a Queen fan until after Freddie's death, when their music and videos were all over the place. That's when I "discovered" the band. I did of course know of their existence and remember having seen them play Live Aid when I was seven years old in 1985 and being quite impressed with Freddie's powerful performance, although I didn't know his name yet at that point. I was just a kid then and still developing my musical taste. I became a movie enthusiast in the late eighties, taping my favourite films on vhs from local television broadcasts and the Queen music from Highlander stuck in my mind a long time. I was very definitely surprised when the news of Freddie's death were on the front page of the two biggest morning papers in my home country of Finland. You see, we didn't exactly have access to the latest rumours in the british press, since this was a time before the internet.I guess I just decided to have a listen at the band's music and was hooked from the start. Better late than never I guess, but while I was discovering the band and all their wonderful music, I also became saddened that they'd lost their singer in his prime and quite frankly didn't believe they'd ever tour again.
