Brian May on Freddie Mercury’s dark days at the Miracle sessions

In a new interview, Queen guitarist Brian May gave an insight into the process of creating and the mood within the band for their 13th album “The Miracle”. At the same time he has Musicians with “Guitarworld” among other things, talked about Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis and the mental problems of the singer.

“The Miracle”: The “best” Queen album of the 80s?

To mark their 33rd anniversary, the band released a box set for “The Miracle” (1989) on November 18th, which includes an extensive collection of outtakes as well as previously unreleased tracks and live recordings. Recorded just a year after Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis, May called it “Queen’s most coherent album of the ’80s.”

One could not (yet) hear Mercury’s dark thoughts at that time

When asked if May’s perspective on the work and the time had changed as he reviewed the boxed material, May replied, “In many ways, yes. Looking back it’s really hard to believe because Freddie was a perpetual optimist. And even with everything he was going through — which we didn’t know about at the time — he always came out with so much positivity. And as we went through the tracks and reminisced about the sessions, those were some of the things that really stood out to me. And one of my favorite Freddie songs is of course ‘The Miracle’. I love this song because there’s nothing but joy, positivity, lightness and humor in it.” The guitarist went on to say that he admired how Mercury dealt with his dark thoughts while exuding “positivity and optimism”. “You never knew. You couldn’t hear it at that time.”

Listen to “The Miracle” from this year’s Collector’s Edition here. Our review is here.

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