BRIAN MAY KNEW FREDDIE WAS ILL WHEN WRITING FORVER

Hello my fellow Queen nuts/
Whilst watching Nation's Favourite Queen Songs tonight when they got onto Who Wants To Live Forever I was really struck by Brian May stating that when writing this song he was thinking about his fathers death.....and the fact Freddie was ill.
I would imagine May was composing this song around late 85 or early 86.
I always thought Freddie's admission to band was around 88/89?
I don't know.....maybe May just kind of forgot as you can do but I was taken aback as I consider myself somewhat of a Mercury anorak.

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Brian has said millions of times that he wrote it inspired in a line from Highlander.

Also Brian has said another million times that during the magic tour Freddie said he felt he could not be able to tour again and nobody understood the meaning of those words until Freddie told them about AIDS a lot later.

So, it can be that Brian is confused, is lying or you misunderstood something. In any case, we can be 100% sure that the band didnt knew about Freddie's illness in 1986 and WWTLF was not made with Freddie in mind. It would not be the first time Brian makes a mistake like this, so dont worry about it.

It was ALSO a glaringly Obvious concept of the screenplay.


The highlander had outlived (most of) his loves in life and wouldn't share his time with others as well again because of the pain attached to it.

Brian honestly just lies his arse off these days... he seems to think everything needs a connection to Freddie.
The other week he claimed Freddie watched Wayne world while on his death bed and gave his full approval.

I don't think he lies, I get pulled up all the time when I tell a story and my missus will say, that didn't happen then it was years before then, its an age thing I'm afraid : (

Obviously the song makes total conceptual sense in regards to Highlander.
I suppose like Andyb says it was just a total slip up as can happen though I would've thought you could remember distinct periods of songwriting.
That Waynes World comment .......May really said that?
That's ridiculous!
On the other hand there is an army of us anoraks out there who pick up on every little thing the members say.I got to admit I did for a nanosecond entertain the idea that May would know by saying such a thing [any little bread crumb]it would be picked up.

[QUOTE] [b]emrabt wrote:[/b]

Brian honestly just lies his arse off these days... he seems to think everything needs a connection to Freddie.
The other week he claimed Freddie watched Wayne world while on his death bed and gave his full approval.[/QUOTE]

To be fair he's stated this all along. Way back in 1992 during an interview he stated that they had been sent a rough cut (at least of the scene) and that Freddie had laughed at it...

[QUOTE] [b]emrabt wrote:[/b]

Brian honestly just lies his arse off these days... he seems to think everything needs a connection to Freddie.
The other week he claimed Freddie watched Wayne world while on his death bed and gave his full approval.[/QUOTE]

he also gave his approval to the Queen+5ive collaboration and the McFly cover saying "both have my blessing adn everyone knows that 5ive & McFly are my favourite boybands"

And let's not forget the new ending to Mother Love Freddie gave Brian during the writing of his Diablerie book.

How do you mean FreddieCat?

People need to realize that the years can get mushy in one's head.

Brian lives in the present, not the past. He doesn't study his past the way a lot of people do here. His ability to retain information isn't a problem if he's a doctor of science. He just doesn't have a memory like Jimmy Page when it comes to his own past, because his last 30 years haven't been dedicated to archiving and reliving his past.

Do you know exactly where your mind was on September 24, 1988? He doesn't either.

So sure, sometimes he forgets which song was on which album, and which year that album was released.

All that said - in what year did his dad die? I think he's definitely got that one wrong, as it was surely later in the 80s, yes?

I think Brian tacitly suspected something was seriously wrong with Freddie in that timeframe - and subsequently that firmed up in his brain over the decades as "I knew and wrote it about him".

But as has been said the song fits the Highlander theme perfectly so no need to suppose he actually DID write it about Freddie.

He might, though, think it ironic or unfortunate - as things turned out.

It's hard to know if the others were suspecting there was a problem before the Magic tour. Only they truly know.

Roger and John may have better answers, but I doubt they'd be willing to talk about it in great detail. It took Roger 20 years to even talk about how he found out about Freddie's death, and he still has to hold back tears in the Days documentary.

Brian has also said he wrote All Dead, All Dead about Freddie.






What, you haven't heard this??? Sheesh. It's been everywhere.