Queen: Days of Our Lives Page #12

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It was utterly shocking, you know.

Filming the groceries in the back

of the car boot.

# Scandal... #

"Any medicine in there?"

You know, it's absolutely shocking.

It became difficult to

work in London,

there was such a terrible

focus of attention on him.

People sticking cameras through

his toilet windows,

as soon as the rumours

were out there.

So Montreal was a much more peaceful place to

work so we ended up doing a lot of stuff there.

"I'm Going Slightly Mad"

Freddie felt much safer there

because people didn't bother.

You know. They weren't intrusively

observing him.

At that point we can't play live

but in the things that we're doing,

it's business as usual.

# I'm going slightly mad

# I'm going slightly mad... #

He was determined to work right up

to the last minute.

I was surprised that he did

Going Slightly Mad.

# It finally happened... #

Which I thought was a good video,

actually,

and it had lots of humour in it.

# I'm slightly mad! #

There was a lot more humour in

Freddie than I think

the general public realised.

You want to take it? No, I...

Oh! What's it doing?

HOOTS OF LAUGHTER

Roger, what did you do?

It was just really

a very close time.

Go for me. Waaa!

Freddie found an amazing tranquillity

and I never really heard him complain.

I remember we went out one night

and he had horrible

problems with his leg.

And Freddie saw me looking at it and said,

"Oh, Brian, do you want to see what it's like?"

And he showed me, and I think...

he reacted to my face, and he said,

"I'm really sorry. I didn't mean

to do that to you. "

I never heard him go, "This is

really awful. My life is sh*t.

"I'm going to die. "

Never, never, never.

He was an amazingly strong person.

The sicker Freddie got, the more

he seemed to need to record,

to give himself something to do, you know

- some sort of reason to get up.

And he would make it in

whenever he could.

So really, it was a period

of fairly intense work, actually.

Freddie is becoming weakened

by this horrible disease

and he finds it hard

to stand up a lot of the time

but he'll throw a couple of

vodkas down and prop himself up

on the mixing desk and have his mike

there, and go for it.

Roll camera, roll playback.

# Sometimes I get to feeling

# I was back in the old days

# Long ago... #

'I can hear the voice is

getting thinner. '

# Things seemed so perfect

You know... #

'I think you can really tell

that it's an ailing voice. '

Although he hits the notes.

# The sun was always shining

# We just lived for fun

# Sometimes... #

'Roger started writing These Are

The Days Of Our Lives about his kids'

and the way he felt about

life and how it comes back.

But of course, in that context,

it had another meaning.

# Those were the days

of our lives... #

'He looked so ill there.

It was quite scary,'

and... I thought that was a very

brave thing to do.

And why not, you know?

'He spent hours and hours and hours

in make-up, sorting himself out,

'so it would be OK.'

# Those days are all gone now but

# One thing is true... #

I did too many movements.

But I just wanted to see...

No, I know...

# I still love you... #

I just want to see...

It doesn't look...

It doesn't look...

I think it should be waisted.

Do you know what I mean? I want a

little bit of shape here. A tiny bit.

'Yeah. I like the shape now. '

# Those days are all gone now, but

# One thing's still true

# When I look... #

'Freddie actually kind of says

a goodbye in that song. '

# I still love you... #

I still love you.

Innuendo was out on the streets,

it was number one

and two weeks later they

were here in Montreux.

And they started doing more music.

And Freddie, at that time, said, "Write

me stuff. I know I don't have very long.

"Keep writing me words.

Keep giving me things.

"I will sing and then you can do

what you like with it afterwards,

"you know, finish it off. "

And so I was writing on scraps

of paper these lines of Mother Love.

He was dying and he did those things

and he knew he would be dead

when they were finished.

Because he said to me,

"I'm going to sing it now,

"because I can't wait for them

to do the music on this.

"I'll give it to you on a drum

machine.

"Give me a drum machine thing...

They'll finish it off. "

# I don't want to make no waves

# You can give me all the love... #

Every time I gave him another line,

he would sing it,

sing it again, and sing it again.

So we had three takes for every

line, and that was it.

# I long for peace before I die... #

Mother Love, I think, was the last

one. There's an exceptional

spine-chilling note in the middle.

A fantastic bit of singing.

# Out in the city

# In the cold world outside

# I don't want pity

# Just a safe place to hide

# Mama, please, let me back

inside... #

It's absolutely... spine-chilling.

And we got to the last verse

and he said,

"Oh, I'm not up to this now,

I need to go away and have a rest.

"I'll come back and finish

it off", you know.

And he never came back.

That was the last moment that I had

with him in the studio.

I went to see Freddie, and it

was in fact the last time I saw him.

He said to me, "I haven't given

you anything in my will.

"You're my executor,

you can do anything with my legacy,

"you can do anything with my music

"but never make me boring. "

The last time I saw Freddie was,

Anita and I went to see him

and he was in bed,

with the curtains open so he could

see out into his garden,

and I was talking about

things in his garden,

saying, "That's really interesting"

and he said,

"Guys, you don't need to feel like

you need to make conversation.

"I'm just so happy that you're here,

"so even if we say nothing,

it's just having these moments. "

The worst thing was I was

actually on my way to see him,

and I was about 300 yards away

when Peter Freestone rang me

to tell me, "Don't bother coming

cos he's gone. "

It was me who wrote

the little epitaph

that's on his statue in Montreux

which just says, "Freddie Mercury,

Lover of Life - Singer of Songs. "

To me, that sums him up

because he lived life to the full,

there's no question,

with all that that entailed.

He was a generous man, a kind man,

an impatient man sometimes,

but utterly dedicated to what

he felt was important,

which was making music.

We made the announcement that we were going to do

a tribute concert to him when we felt that we could,

to send him out in the style

which he deserved.

We hope that a lot of you will

be able to join us

on April 20th at Wembley Stadium

for a celebration of Freddie's

life and career.

You're all welcome. Please join us.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So we drew up a list of people

that we'd like to be on the show.

Roger got the ball rolling.

Roger got up one morning and said, "Look,

we're doing this. " And made a few phone calls.

And Brian said, "Well,

if you can get that lot, I'll come. "

On stage, Mr Roger Daltrey!

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