clarification of Thor Arnold's role in Freddie's life

Two parter..musical contemporaries.

That you know of. ...did Fred wish to collaborate with any of his contemporaries?

Did Fred ever meet Prince Rogers Nelson/attend any of his shows?

I know he'd been photographed with Annie Lennox...though nothing more than mutual admiration as far as I'd heard

Thor, good to see you. I just wanted to reach out and let you know that the book you're referring to by Lesley Ann Jones has been proven false by loads of people involved with Queen, including but not limited to Jacky Smith, Chris "Crystal" Taylor, Peter Straker, Jim Hutton and many more. Most take issue with the Barbara V part of the book, as Freddie told Chris Taylor and Jim Hutton that he never had a sexual relationship with her, and so did Barbara. That was part of the issue with the channel 5 docudrama with John Blunt, actually. Brian May and Freddie's mother and sister tried to stop it from happening as it involved Lelsey and included false information about Freddie including Barbara. Funny thing is, Barbara was on The Untold Story documentary which featured his family, Jim, Mary, Peter Freestone, the band, and many friends and Barbara herself never claimed to have been a lover. Peter Freestone (as I'm sure you know) has written that he too doesn't believe it was true. She only seemed to claim she had a sexual relationship with him to Lesley who is known as being the most innacurate biographer of all time. Chris Taylor has called her out on many lies (most being Barbara) she's told. Apparently, Lesley got caught claiming to be places with Queen that she wasnt....and according to those who knew Freddie and are active on social media, she is a tabloid writer and nothing more.
Barbara also once claimed Freddie tried to kill her in her sleep by choking her around the neck in a trance. So, let's all remember to take that woman's word with a giant grain of salt. I see no reason why Freddie would not have told his friends he was romantically involved with a woman if he had been. And I also don't see why he would tell people that he hadn't been involved with her, if he had. Theres no doubt they were close friends, but lovers....highly doubtful.
With that in mind, and with the question of his sexuality always being brought up... Mary, Peter Freestone, Straker, Diana M, and the band all seemed to agree that he was gay. Peter said he never saw him take a woman home for sex in all the time he knew Freddie and as you know Paul Prenter said the same. Actually, he said "Freddie would sooner walk on water than sleep with a woman". Of course, his word is often dismissed due to his choices that later hurt Freddie greatly. So my question is: I know you mentioned believing Freddie was 99% gay and 1%bi, but after having pretty much ruled out Barbara as a lover, would you still say he was 1% bi? Everyone in his circle seems to believe he was simply gay. I must admit, all signs point to that. Theres nothing wrong with it, of course. I'd just like to hear your thoughts on it with this information.

Hello Thor , great to have you here! You are a familiar character to me, mostly from Peter Freestone's book which I have read several times. It's absolutely wonderful to hear all your first-hand memories of your time with Freddie. Fascinating stuff!

Not that it matters to me, but if Mary and Diana? His designer? Said he was gay i would tend to believe them over internet people who didn't know him saying he was bi.

[QUOTE] [b]mike hunt wrote:[/b]

Not that it matters to me, but if Mary and Diana? His designer? Said he was gay i would tend to believe them over internet people who didn't know him saying he was bi. [/QUOTE]

There still seems to be a lot of taboo regarding the word 'gay.' Some homophobes cannot fathom the idea that a talented musician (or a talented anything, for that matter) happened to be gay, and prefer to revert to the 'bi' label.

As you say, people who actually knew him are far better sources than internet speculation for this particular matter.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]mike hunt wrote:[/b]

Not that it matters to me, but if Mary and Diana? His designer? Said he was gay i would tend to believe them over internet people who didn't know him saying he was bi. [/QUOTE]

There still seems to be a lot of taboo regarding the word 'gay.' Some homophobes cannot fathom the idea that a talented musician (or a talented anything, for that matter) happened to be gay, and prefer to revert to the 'bi' label.

As you say, people who actually knew him are far better sources than internet speculation for this particular matter.[/QUOTE]

I disagree. People actually expect someone talented -especially in the arts- to be at least a little bit gay to 100% homosexual.
Freddie challenged the ideas about manhood and masculinity and if in fact to be homosexual reinforces the masculine identiy (rather than the opposite) or at least redefines it.
And this is such a difficult concept to comprehend so most people grab on the "bisexual concept " because its a safer approach or something they can hold on to.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]mike hunt wrote:[/b]

Not that it matters to me, but if Mary and Diana? His designer? Said he was gay i would tend to believe them over internet people who didn't know him saying he was bi. [/QUOTE]

There still seems to be a lot of taboo regarding the word 'gay.' Some homophobes cannot fathom the idea that a talented musician (or a talented anything, for that matter) happened to be gay, and prefer to revert to the 'bi' label.

As you say, people who actually knew him are far better sources than internet speculation for this particular matter.[/QUOTE]

Usually women tend to stress he was absolutely bi, had sex with women and loved Mary till the end. Oh if i had a nickel...

On a sidenote, almost 26 years after his passing we still talk about the guy. He would probably laugh and be the first to tell us to get a life and move on. :D

He wouldn't be the first or last gay person to have been with people of the opposite sex.

The flipside also happens sometimes (straight people having at some point being with someone from the same sex, whether it's intercourse or merely snogging, or perhaps just a bit of private parts grabbing), but they'd rarely, if ever, admit to that, lest they're thought of as being gay.

To be honest,It doesn't matter to me whether he was gay or bi.
I am a straight woman and I don't think he loved Mary until the end.He loved her like a sister or friend.
I think his greatest love was Jim.
Of course I did not know they, my opinion based on what I read in books, various texts, seen in documentaries,listening to his music, watching videos and photos on the internet ...
Some kind of inner feeling tells me it was so,that Freddie loved Jim strongly,sincerely and deeply.
People are interested in the lives of celebrities and have their own opinions about them.
None of us knew Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, Mozart, Nikola Tesla, Dostoevsky...but people still talk about them and are interested for their lives.
I don't think that Freddie would laugh about what we're now discussing about him and his sexuality.
I think that he would be glad that people remember him today, love his music and talk about him.
I hope that Thor will come back here and tell us something about this and other interesting things.

Thor, great to see you refer to Freddie's 'hotel name' as Arnold Mason.
In 1979 on Queen's UK tour some friends and I managed to get to the suite floor of the hotel they were staying at in Liverpool. Something I'm ashamed of now.

We asked a hotel worker which suites the band were in and were given the suite names and the 'assumed' or 'hotel'
names of the band. I remember one being Mr. Mason but we chose another. The door was answered by Roger Taylor.

But that's another story.

Would love to have been on the NYC gay scene in the early eighties but I didn't get to NYC until '94 and have been a regular visitor since.

Looks like I am a little behind in my replies back.
Supersonic_Man89 Dealing with stress is difficult for me to answer. I would guess that his way at the time I knew him was socializing, getting buzzed and finding sexual partners. I was doing the same thing back then, only realizing that in the long run, choosing quantity over quality in relationships was truly unfulfilling.
Your second question is answered the same way. I believe he countered any loneliness with many temporary sexual relationships that when over, just led t the next one.
Lastly, I can honestly say that I never had even one argument with Freddie. Silly arguments about men or competition in getting men thankfully was never a problem. Freddie like them stocky (we called his type "barrels") whereas, I went for the "thin and well-defined " type. We had fun sometimes trying to match each other with men and then pursuing anything further on our own.

Invisible Woman Mary was always present, even when he was deeply involved with Jim. She lived mostly in the Garden Lodge and was very involved in the Queen Corporation. She was quiet and polite with Freddie's guests, but never really joined in our dinners and events. Of course she was present with each concert tour and that is where I saw her mostly.
Also, I did meet Jim several times and on several tours including the "Kind of Magic" concert in London. They were always loving toward each other as far as I could tell.

Hello Ivo-1976 .Thank you. Visits to Freddie were always exciting. Although when going out at night, Freddie usually did not come out, like he had in New York. I guess, when you are so well-known like in Britain, it was preferable to just to stay home. He had his live-in friend/workers there and Jim and Mary. During the early London visits he sent us out to have fun times with the locals by ourselves. In the later visits, we mostly stayed at home with Freddie but he also encouraged us to "go out some and have a good time for him"

Hi Thor

Do you recall a gay club quite close to Logan Place called Copa's? Full of moustaches and singlets. Ha ha.

One of Freddie's friends used to go there a lot - the UK DJ and comedian Kenny Everett. Did you ever meet him?

Thor, these are some amazing anecdotes. Thanks so much for sharing. The one about Freddie talking about buying and burning that club down was hilarious.

Since you spent a lot of time with him in the early 80s, I have to ask:

In the early 80s when the illness was new, did AIDS ever come up as a topic when Freddie was around?

If so, how did Freddie view it?

When did you learn Freddie was HIV-positive?

Thanks for the insights, Thor. I'm certainly not trying to be ghoulish. There's just a lot of unanswered questions about my rock hero that will probably stubbornly remain that way.

[QUOTE] [b]splicksplack wrote:[/b]

We asked a hotel worker which suites the band were in and were given the suite names and the 'assumed' or 'hotel'
names of the band. I remember one being Mr. Mason but we chose another. The door was answered by Roger Taylor.[/QUOTE]

Frederick went by Alfred Mason, Brian by either Chris Mullins (a play on the name of his then wife) or Brian Manley, John by Jason Dane or Judge Dread (JD, JD, JD), Rog was either Roy Tanner (RT) or Rudolph de Rainbow.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]splicksplack wrote:[/b]

We asked a hotel worker which suites the band were in and were given the suite names and the 'assumed' or 'hotel'
names of the band. I remember one being Mr. Mason but we chose another. The door was answered by Roger Taylor.[/QUOTE]
....Rudolph de Rainbow.[/QUOTE]

That is hilarious!