Episode 424: Freddie Mercury: The Ultimate Rock God
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we explore the life, love, songs, and death of the ultimate rock and roll front man, Freddie Mercury. He wasn’t the typical British rock god people assume him to be. In fact, he was born in Zanzibar, not the UK. His birth name was Farrokh Bulsara, and he didn’t live in England until he was 12 years old when his parents were fleeing a violent revolution in their home country.
Unsurprisingly, he was a gifted musician early on, learning the piano at age 8 and being able to parrot just about any song shortly thereafter. He started singing in bands before he was even a teenager, but he only started to seriously do gigs when he moved to London with his long time fiancé Mary Austin. He sang in small bands with horrible names (Sour Milk Sea, The Hectics, Ibex, and Wreckage) before he met guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, to become lead singer of their band Smile (bass player John Deacon joined later). The released an album a couple years later, and then started to prolifically drop an album a year through the early 70s. They met with some success with the album Sheer Heart Attack in 1974, and the rest was music history.
They started to tour, and Freddie Mercury’s charisma sold out house after house. Freddie turned out to be a musical genius with a four octave range, and only sleeping three or four hours a night (something that Prince also did, which I guess is a sign of musical genius!). Eventually, no music venue could hold them, so they became the first band to sell out sporting arenas.
Their live shows culminated in their Live Aid performance, which is largely considered to be the greatest rock and roll concert of all time. From “We Will Rock You” to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and from “Under Pressure” to “Flash Gordon,” the larger-than-life stadium glam rock hits kept coming. Through it all, there were of course parties, cocaine, and lots and lots of sex. This is what ultimately lead to Freddie Mercury’s AIDS-related death in 1991.
So, was Freddie Mercury gay or bisexual? What happened between him and his female fiancé of 7 years? How did she get along with his boyfriend? Why did he keep his AIDS diagnosis a secret? To whom did he leave his fortune, and why? What was with his broken microphone stand? And why didn’t he fix those teeth?!? Listen, laugh, learn.
Visit our Sources:
https://www.biography.com/musician/freddie-mercury
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mercury
http://www.freddiemercury.com/
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/j5yn37/freddie-mercury-peter-freestone-interview
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/freddie-mercury-facts-you-need-to-know/
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20191010-who-was-the-real-freddie-mercury
http://mentalfloss.com/article/22465/facts-about-freddie-mercury
https://planetradio.co.uk/magic/entertainment/music/freddie-mercury/
Visit our online store to find Sofa King Podcast shirts, stickers and other merchandise.
Join our email list to get the latest Sofa King Podcast news.
