Freddie Mercury's life was magic, but he also faced more than his share of tragedy.
Years after his death the public finds the Queen frontman as fascinating as ever.
Here's a look at Freddie Mercury's tragic real-life story.
Cool and supportive parents
Just in case you're wondering what sort of awesomely cool parents would name their kid
"Freddie Mercury," that's not his real name.
Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara , which still could've been a pretty good rock star name.
His family was Parsee, ethnically Persian followers of the Zoroastrian religion.
He spent part of his childhood in India and part in colonial Africa.
But in 1963 his family was forced to flee Zanzibar to London after the country achieved
independence and poor Africans started targeting wealthier Indian families.
In London, Mercury enrolled in graphic design classes at Isleworth Polytechnic.
His mother Jer told The Telegraph in 2011 that she made him apply for graphic design
jobs between all the songwriting he was doing while holed up in his bedroom.
Ultimately, after annoying the neighbors with all the noise, he ended up moving out.
"he's been popular all around the world and I want to keep his memory alive as much as
I can do"
Big-teeth Bucky
When Mercury enrolled in Peter's Church of England School in India, he was self-conscious
about his prominent upper teeth.
His classmates caught onto this particular insecurity and gave him the cruel nickname
"Bucky."
Childhood trauma tends to haunt us for the rest of our lives, and that was indeed the
case for Mercury.
Even after he became a star, he would cover up his mouth with one hand whenever he smiled.
But some people think his teeth might have actually contributed to his distinctive singing
voice.
The high price of fame
If Freddie Mercury had become a star in the 2010s instead of in the 1980s, his story would've
had a different ending.
According to The Advocate, he probably became infected with HIV in New York in the summer
of 1982.
The 2016 book Somebody to Love suggests he was already showing symptoms when he appeared
on Saturday Night Live in September of that year in what would be his last U.S. performance.
AIDS was still newly emerging in the early '80s, publicly associated primarily with gay
men, and Mercury wasn't open about his sexuality.
Homophobia in that decade was vicious, and the rise of the AIDS epidemic made some people
feel justified in attacking gay men both verbally and physically.
So Mercury kept quiet, and some of those fears affected the treatment he sought, the people
he told, and his decision to stop appearing in public.
Almost coming out
Mercury considered "Bohemian Rhapsody" to be his greatest achievement, but decades later
we're still arguing about what the song actually meant.
The singer himself was pretty cagey about it.
According to Rolling Stone, he once answered a question about the song's meaning with these
words:
"I'll say no more than what any decent poet would tell you if you dared ask him to analyze
his work: 'If you see it, dear, then it's there.'"
A lot of people seem to think "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a coming-out song, though if that's the
truth it is so deeply disguised in metaphor that only a resurrected Mercury could say
for sure.
One person who knew him, manager John Reid, said he thought it might have been a coming-out
song, though it bears mentioning that Mercury never actually publicly came out.
If it was a comment on his sexuality, it doesn't seem to have been intended as a clear, direct
message.
Love above all else
One of Mercury's most important personal relationships was with his former girlfriend Mary Austin.
The authors of Somebody to Love attempted to explain why he might have put Austin above
all of his gay relationships by suggesting it had to do with his own deep-seated homophobia.
But maybe he was really just bisexual.
Mercury referred to Austin as "the love of his life" and his "common-law wife."
As romantic partners, they were together for seven years, splitting up when Mercury started
pursuing relationships with men.
Even then they remained close.
He left most of his estate to her when he died, and he also entrusted her with secretly
scattering his ashes.
"You couldn't deny Freddie the right to be at one with himself"
Outstanding Contribution to Music
Like everyone else in Mercury's life, his Queen bandmates dismissed the gossip around
him and remained largely ignorant when it came to their front man's health problems.
In 1989, Mercury decided he "wasn't up to doing tours," so the band didn't schedule
one following the release of their album The Miracle.
By 1990, Mercury was gaunt, sickly, and clearly not himself.
His final public appearance was at the Brit Awards, when Queen accepted the award for
Outstanding Contribution to British Music.
The acceptance speech was given not by Mercury, as everyone expected, but by guitarist Brian
May.
But Mercury did say one quick thing just before the band left the stage.
"Thank you.
Good night."