Queen/Trivia


 * Artist Existence Failure: Freddie died a tragic death from AIDS. He kept it a closely guarded secret and only went public with it less than 24 hours before his death. It has to be said though that there were quite a few hints in their songs and in the fact that Freddie hadn't appeared in any music video since "These Are the Days of Our Lives".
 * Career Resurrection: They hadn't exactly fallen into obscurity by that point, but people were starting to regard Queen as old hat and past their prime... until Live Aid, that is.
 * Creator Backlash: The "It's a Hard Life" video. May isn't a big fan of it and Taylor outright hates it, calling it "the worst music video ever" on the Greatest Hits 2 commentary. They've both admitted loving the song, though.
 * Taylor also admitted in a recent documentary that it was the most fun he had on a video shoot. He just doesn't like the finished product.
 * Both Deacon and Taylor publicly panned Jazz and Hot Space. The latter was defended by May (who claims that without it there'd have been no Thriller - Michael Jackson agreed that their album was an influence on him) and Mercury (whose debut solo album is basically a Hot Space II).
 * Brian May hates "Don't Stop Me Now".
 * In a recent documentary about Queen Brian said he actually kind of liked Don't Stop Me Now.
 * Whatever his current sentiments, rumour has it that Brian wanted nothing to do with the song initially when it was being recorded, and it took a bit of convincing on Freddie's part to get him to throw in a guitar solo. Which explains why, outside the solo, there's hardly any guitar on it.
 * Freddie was not pleased with the sound of the Wurlitzer electric piano, which John insisted on playing on "You're My Best Friend". Freddie preferred the sound of the acoustic piano. He still loved the song itself, though.
 * It took lots of fighting and arguing before finally deciding to add a guitar solo to the song "Back Chat", mostly because John Deacon, the composer, wanted to eliminate every possible rock element from this song.
 * Creator Breakdown: Most of Innuendo is about Freddie coming to terms with his illness and eventual death, particularly "These Are the Days of Our Lives" and "I'm Going Slightly Mad".
 * That's a fairly big generalization, there's only a few songs on there that are actually about Freddie's illness, and others such as "Innuendo" and "I Can't Live With You" are fairly typical Queen songs. These Are The Days Of Our Lives" was written by Roger, not Freddie, and Freddie stated that "I'm Going Slightly Mad" was only written in jest. "The Show Must Go On" and "Delilah" both play this straight however.
 * Freddie downplayed his songs regularly as meaningless, particularly those that dealt with issues he wanted private (especially his sexuality and his illness from AIDS). As soon as he revealed his illness, he wanted to conduct his life as "normally" as possible, keep the press away, protect those he loved, and not have fans buy Queen's music out of sympathy. So he regularly denied he was ill until the next-to-last day of his life.
 * Fan Nickname: 'Bo Rhap' for 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (acknowledge by Freddie in some concerts and interviews), 'Deacy' (pronounced, and sometimes spelt, 'Deaky') for 'John Deacon' (used often by Brian May - Roger and Freddie always called him 'John', though), 'Maylor' for Brian May + Roger Taylor, 'Dr May' for Brian May (recently a certified PHD, which makes it accurate).
 * I Am Not Spock: When Freddie died, Brian tried to make it as a solo artist (i.e. lead singer) and to make a reputation away from Queen. He even summoned a dream-team backing band that included Cozy Powell, Black Sabbath's Neil Murray and (at one point) Rick Wakeman. It didn't work ... fans liked it more when he walked away from the microphone and played guitar solos.
 * He didn't necessarily try to distance himself from the band, as a good portion of the songs he played live were his Queen compositions, notably "We Will Rock You" and "Hammer To Fall".
 * Roger formed a parallel band in the 80's, where he was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist rather than the drummer. He was extremely annoyed by fans and journalists still thinking of him as the drummer. His solo career also suffered a bit from it.
 * Roger sometimes showed annoyance about being considered only as "the drummer", even with the band Queen. There are some interviews where he introduces himself as "the drummer and one of the vocalists" of the band.
 * Name's the Same: Roger Taylor sometimes goes by Roger Meddows-Taylor to distinguish himself from the Roger Taylor who played drums in Duran Duran.
 * There is a separate Brian May, an Australian who composes film scores.
 * The Pete Best: Original bassist Tim Staffell.
 * The Red Stapler: Good Omens features a running gag about CDs turning into "The Best of Queen" if they're left in a car long enough, name dropping several songs along the way. At the time, there wasn't a Queen album that had every song listed, but fans of the book made such an uproar that one was created.
 * What Could Have Been: Considering Freddie's untimely passing, there's a lot of this relating to Queen.
 * After Freddie died, it was given serious consideration as to having George Michael take over as full-time lead singer.
 * Brian May has expressed regrets over not releasing a proper soundtrack for Highlander with Michael Kamen's score complementing the band's compositions.
 * In a 1986 interview, Freddie suggested that he would eventually stop performing if he felt he was getting too old for it and focus on songwriting and producing instead.
 * Before Freddie's death rumors were spreading of them touring with David Bowie
 * There were some discussions about Adam Lambert touring with them after her performed with them at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2011.