Freddie Mercury (left) and Brian May (right).
Photo: Redferns, Ian Dickson. All rights reserved.
Brian May says he won’t be following ongoing auction of Freddie Mercury’s personal belongings. For him and the late Queen singer’s closest friends and family, it was “too sad” to watch.
May announced this via an Instagram post, which was accompanied by a picture of Mercury playing one of his guitars. “It’s inevitable to think about Freddie so much on these strange days,” the caption reads. “I’m sure seeing Freddie’s fingers dancing across my homemade guitar didn’t seem that important to me when this photo was taken. Now it calls waves of affection and good memories. He is missed so much.”
The guitarist adds: “Tomorrow, while I’ll be speaking passionately to Welsh farmers about cows and badgers and bovine tuberculosis, Freddie’s most intimate personal belongings and writings that formed part of what we shared for so many years will go under the hammer, go to the highest bidder and disappear forever. I can’t look. For us, his closest friends and family, it is too sad.”
A total of just under 1,500 objects from Mercury’s personal possessions will be auctioned. Among them are his piano, several stage outfits and early handwritten drafts of the lyrics for “Killer Queen”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Somebody To Love” and “We Are The Champions”.