Welcome back to Queen The Greatest,
where we are remembering an event
that wasn't just one of the greatest and most significant
in the history of Queen,
but also in the entire history of rock music.
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
The overwhelming outpouring of love
that followed the tragic passing of Freddie,
convinced Roger, Brian, John and Jim Beach,
that there needed to be some kind of event to celebrate
the life and achievements of their best friend.
[Brian May] “We're here tonight
to celebrate
the life and work and dreams of one Freddie Mercury.
We're going to give him the biggest send-off in history.”
[Roger Taylor] “So we drew up a list
of people that we'd like to be on the show."
[Brian May] “Roger got the the ball rolling,
Roger got up one morning and said, 'Look, we're doing this right'
and made a few phone calls.”
[Roger Taylor] “And Brian said,
'Well, if you can get that lot, I'll go, I'll come'."
[Brian May] “So suddenly,
we're performing with David Bowie and Robert Plant.
You know, you look around and who is this, you know,
Tony Iommi’s beside me, who's a lifelong friend,
you know, the most amazing artists of our lives.”
[Joe Elliott] “I was the first person to sing with Queen after Fred died.
Doing it on stage in front of 80,000 people
and a billion people on TV.
Holy s**t.”
[Joe Elliott] “You'd never think it would be possible
to get one person to stand in Fred's shoes because
there's no way I could have done anything other than, say,
the rock stuff.
With the Freddie Mercury Tribute Show,
you needed 20 characters to even come close
to pulling on his coattails.”
[Brian May] “The task of finding one person
who could do everything that Freddie could do,
would have been pretty much impossible.
The whole range of Queen songs is considerable.
It's a very, very colourful catalogue
with all kinds of different sorts of vocal approaches needed.”
[Roger Taylor] “It did bring home
the fact that Freddie was so incredibly talented on so many levels
and how hard it was for anybody
to cover as much ground as Freddie covered."
[Taylor Hawkins] “I don't think anyone thought
they were going to show up and be the next Freddie Mercury.
It ain't easy, man.”
The show was packed with countless, extraordinary moments
that live long in the memory –
but just as memorable is the message of AIDS awareness
that from that moment, became inextricably linked to Freddie's name.
[Roger Taylor] “Obviously, losing
Freddie has brought it home to us.
You know, in a big way.
And many other people that I know,
I mean, as time goes on,
it becomes more, more of a threat and the threat is growing, I think.
I don't think the awareness is growing.
So this seems like,
especially for us,
a good time to do this.”
As the emotional, yet triumphant night drew to a close,
everybody watching hoped this would not be the last
they would see and hear of Queen.
[Brian May] “It's done.
And Joe Elliott was next to me as we walked off
and he just grabbed my arm and he said, 'Brian,
look at that'."
[Joe Elliott] “I said, ‘You need to need to stand here and look at this
because you will never, ever see this again.
If this is the end, what a way to go’.”
[Brian May] “And for the first time, I looked out and I thought,
'Ah, how amazing' this amount of love got poured out to our friend."
[Roger Taylor] “Goodnight Freddie. We love you.”
[Brian May] “In a way, the concert is quite important for us
because it's our way of saying goodbye to Freddie as well.
And I think we need to do
that before our minds can really move on.
It's something which we had in our minds,
right from the point where he did die.
And it's very hard to think on after that, isn't it?”
[Roger Taylor] “That's right. Yeah.”
[Brian May] “That’s the only thing I can focus on
at this moment is that day.
When it's over, there's a new world out there in some way.”
Thanks to the Mercury Phoenix Trust,
the fight against AIDS is part of Freddie's everlasting legacy,
and as we continue our series of Queen The Greatest,
we shall see how this wasn't the end for Queen or their music,
but in fact the beginning of a thrilling new chapter.
[Liza Minnelli] “Thanks Freddie.
We just wanted to let you know we were thinking about you.
Stay safe!”