EXCLUSIVE
FREDDIE MERCURY may have been one of rock music’s most flamboyant stars but away from the glitz and the glamour he liked nothing more than curling up on the sofa to watch Countdown.
Few people saw the real Freddie who died 28 years ago, aged 45. He lives on thanks to his music and the success of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
The film reminded everyone not just of his extraordinary talent but also his unique spirit, whether strutting in spandex or bitching backstage with the band.
One person who did see him first-hand was Peter Freestone who was part of his life for the last 12 years, living at Freddie’s Garden Lodge mansion in Kensington and working as his PA.
He travelled the world with Freddie and held his hand during the last hours of his life.
Peter is in London to support new box set Never Boring, which collects Freddie’s solo work with rare photographs, interviews and thoughts.
It is a fascinating insight into a man Peter remembers as “the kindest, most generous and loyal friend anyone could wish to have” and someone “happiest at home in a mismatched tracksuit watching Countdown”.
They met in 1979 when Freddie was working on a benefit gala with the Royal Ballet, where Peter worked in the wardrobe department: “He was in such heaven dancing in his harlequin outfit and ballet shoes but he had two left feet. He simply could not take choreography.”
Freddie famously built a family around himself, employing his friends and ex-lovers. Within months, Peter was installed as part of that inner circle. Bohemian Rhapsody showed a hedonistic, egotistical rock star throwing lavish parties and cruising the world for trouble. Peter soon discovered many different sides to Freddie. “He left the rock star on stage. In interviews that persona was to create drama. He never actually took himself too seriously. “He knew he was good but he never put himself in the same category as his idols like Elvis and John Lennon.
“He was proud of
Bohemian
Rhapsody but thought his best work ever was Somebody
To Love.
“He would leave the house and always strike a pose for the fans because he never forgot everything he had came from them.”
Peter remembers crazy club nights out in New York where Freddie might be found drunkenly jumping up and down in a giant bin laughing and screaming “I’m trash, I’m trash,” but he refused to use his identity to queue jump or get special treatment.
“He loved to entertain and might upgrade to a matching tracksuit and then pretend he had laid the table himself.
“He was always laughing. I wish the film had shown that more. In public, he would cover his teeth with his lips or bring up his hand. At home, he relaxed, he showed his friends his real laugh, the real him. He would do anything for his friends. He had a birthday book so he never forgot to send a gift. He’d send a personal note after a lovely dinner. He was a gentleman.” Freddie was intensely loyal, but he was no fool. Peter worried about hangers-on taking advantage but Freddie told him “You really think I’m so stupid? It’s my money, my life. I know what they’re doing but I am getting something out of it, too.”
The only time he was truly hurt was when ex-lover and manager Paul Prenter betrayed him.
“Freddie discovered his life through Paul Prenter,” he says. “He found it wasn’t such a sin to be gay, you could go out, you could have relationships.
“Paul was looking after the whole band but they fired him because he was spending all his time with Freddie. He tried to steer him away from the band. He became unreliable and Freddie knew enough was enough and let him go.when Paul sold his story it devastated him.”
Freddie found real love twice.
Bohemian Rhapsody reintroduced the world to his girlfriend Mary Austin. Until the end, he referred to her as “the love of my life” and “my common-law wife”.
Did the world, even Freddie, romanticise their relationship? After all, he spent his final years with partner Jim Hutton.
“Yes, to a great degree. But Freddie taught me you don’t use all your love once and then it’s gone. Freddie did love Mary but he also loved Jim. He loved his friends.
“Freddie felt huge guilt for what he put Mary through in 1975 when he broke their engagement and told her the truth about himself. But it is significant that in the end he gave Mary the house and half of all his future earnings from Queen.
“That is how much he felt for her because she was always there for him from the beginning.”
Hutton later claimed that Freddie promised him the house but Peter says: “I doubt that. It is something Freddie might have said in a throwaway moment, but he was always very particular to write down anything he really