Queen guitarist Brian May revealed that he didn’t know Freddie Mercury was into men and was part of the LGBTQ community for a lot of Queen’s career.
Classic Rock asked, “A lot of the criticism was directed at Freddie personally. People wrote stuff they wouldn’t get away writing these days. Was there an element of homophobia?”
May responded, “That’s an interesting thought. I confess I’ve never thought about it. People didn’t know Freddie was gay. We didn’t know. And in the beginning I don’t think Freddie knew. But he was, on the face of it, a very flippant, flamboyant, dancing-through-life person. And of course, that wasn’t the whole person, it was a cloak he put on. But I think people did resent it. They thought it was arrogance.”
May added that Queen united together as a ‘family’ in response to critics lobbing attacks their way. He said, “There were quite a lot of those guys in the music press saying we were rubbish. So yes, it did hurt. What got us through was each other. We had the ability to be more vindictive and cruel to each other than the press ever had the ability to do. So we got through by supporting each other, becoming a very strong family group.” Queen Reacted To Adam Lambert ‘Firing’ Claims By Fans.
