Brian May Talks About How Positive Freddie Mercury Can Be

Brian May has been busy telling previously untold tales from the recording sessions for Queen’s 1983 album The Miracle, which the band plans to republish along with their original lineup 33 years later.

In a recent interview with Guitar World, the Queen’s guitarist said that, despite his sickness, Freddie Mercury maintained a cheerful attitude during the recording sessions.

“Looking back on things, it is quite hard to fathom, really, because Freddie was an eternal optimist,” May explained. “And even with all that he was going through – which we knew nothing about at the time – he always came in with so much positivity.”

May continued that through looking at the reissued tracks, he found things that struck him the most. “And as we were going back through these tracks and remembering the sessions, those were some of the things that really did strike me. And, of course, one of my favorite Freddie tracks of all time is ‘The Miracle.’ I love that song because, on that track, you hear nothing but joy, positivity, lightness, and humor,” he said.

He also expressed his awe-struck by Mercury’s cheerfulness, despite battling his darkest secrets inside. “You would never know. You could never hear it at that time. It’s just one of the many marvelous things about Freddie, his ability to radiate positivity and optimism no matter what he was going through internally,” May conclude.

Freddie Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, and Queen’s The Miracle album was released in 1989. Two years later, Queen’s frontman died from bronchial pneumonia due to AIDS-related disease.