Queen front man Mercury famously guarded his sexual orientation and didn't publicly acknowledge his HIV infection until shortly before he died in 1991.

"I found that tragic," Panozzo says. "Here was this brilliant man, and it now it's too late. It's over. How glorious it would have been for him to say who he was (when he was recording and touring)."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/12/DDEDS196T.DTL&feed=rss.entertainment