Queen guitarist Brian May has opened up about the latter years of the iconic band’s front man Freddie Mercury.
May said he believes Mercury, who died in 1991 from AIDS-related causes, would be alive today if cocktail of drugs had been available.
“He missed it by just a few months,” the rocker told The Times. “If it had been just a bit later he would still be with us, I’m sure. But you can’t go there because therein lies madness.”
May recalled how the disease took a serious physical toll on Mercury.
“The problem was actually his foot – and, tragically there was very little left of it.
“Once, he showed it to us at dinner. And he said: ‘Oh Brian, I’m sorry I’ve upset you by showing you that’. And I said, ‘I’m not upset, Freddie, except to realise that you have to put up with so much terrible pain.’”
May said he and others close to Mercury knew he was living with AIDS, even though the singer didn’t publicly disclose his condition until just before his death.
“He said: ‘You probably gather that I'm dealing with this thing and I don't want to talk about it and I don't want our lives to change, but that's the situation.’ And then he would move on.”