What is it about Queen’s music that makes it so enduring and influential? Since their debut in 1970, the band has rocked the world with their arena smash hits and radio-bopping epics. They were unlike anything that came before, and it’s unlikely there will be an act like them again. Whether you’re a Queen fan or not, you’ll have undoubtedly heard at least a couple of their tracks at a club, on TV, or on the radio.

Queen’s frontman didn’t always go by Freddie Mercury. The sovereign of sound himself was born Farrokh Bulsara and was born to Persian parents, who themselves were originally from India. His father was a cashier who worked in the British Colonial Office.

“Conservative” probably isn’t the first thing to come to mind when you picture Queen’s frontman—what might come to mind are wild on-stage performances, dancing, drugs, and rock n’ roll. However, Freddie Mercury’s childhood was a lot quieter and more subdued than most would have thought.

After completing his boarding school studies, he and the rest of his family fled to England—to a small home in Middlesex. The Zanzibar Revolution had begun, and Freddie’s parents wanted to escape the riots which were erupting all over the region.

It wasn’t long until he inducted himself into a band with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor after meeting the two of them at an underground concert in London. Freddie has seen them play while watching them in their band, Smile. He wanted to be a part of it.

It was pure chance that Freddie joined the band that would later change its name to Queen. Freddie discovered that Smile’s lead singer had parted ways with the group. He was in the right place at the right time. Freddie loved their music too much to see it die. He put himself forward for an audition.

After changing its frontman and name, the band gained an air of royalty and splendor. There was certainly controversy over the name, as LGBTQ+ awareness was not mainstream, and their rights were not widely recognized. But over time, Freddie’s flamboyant performances helped make even the most conservative of people tap along.

Just under three years since Smile changed its name, Queen had developed a hardcore following. They were regarded as equals to other rock legends, such as T-Rex, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and The Rolling Stones.

Freddie wasn’t the only genius behind the music. Each member of the band was highly intelligent in their own right. Queen’s guitarist, Brian May, held a bachelor’s degree in physics. As of 2007, he finished his Ph.D. in physics and astronomy, making him a doctor!

As Freddie was a student of art, it would make sense that he would have some say in the band’s logo—or crest. The logo was featured on the band’s first self-titled album. The animals on the crest have special significance. They represented the zodiac signs of each member of the band.

Although Queen had a big following locally during their early years, they wouldn’t gain mainstream success right away. Their first self-titled album didn’t catch on with the general public. The slow sales didn’t deter them. After their first attempt, they got working on their second album, Queen II

1974 was the year that Queen almost won it all—and lost it all, too. After performing as the opening act to Mott the Hoople, who were all the rage in those days, Queen was asked to tour with them in the US. This would have been their big break into international markets.

After their return from the States, and as May was making a slow recovery, work began on their third album, Sheer Heart Attack. The album contained their breakout smash single, Killer Queen, a song Freddie had written himself. The album garnered high praise from critics in the US and the United Kingdom.

Freddie and the rest of the boys enlisted the help of John Reid, Elton John’s manager, to take care of management for them. Now that they had their finances sorted out and someone who understood their vision, they were primed for stardom.

Before Bohemian Rhapsody, hit pop songs were barely ever over three minutes long. When Elton John caught wind of Queen’s six-minute epic, he laughed, convinced that the song would never get the radio treatment. But when the producers asked him to shorten the song, Freddie refused.

When Queen was producing the song that they are probably most famous for today, their producers really took a chance by letting them make something that was not only completely unlike anything that came before but twice as long as any regular pop hit.

While it began as an accident, the “bottomless mic” prop almost became Freddie’s trademark. During one of their early shows, the stand broke. Rather than stop the show and fix it, Freddie wielded it like a royal scepter before the crowd.

Freddie liked to live his way. When it came to art, he needed absolute freedom to express himself. He kept his own life very private, away from the cameras and magazine writers. He was only close to one person—Mary Austin. The two had been friends since 1969.

Freddie and Mary had lived together in West Kensington in London, having been together as a couple since 1969. Eventually, Freddie gave Mary a gift: Mary opened a box, which contained a box, which contained another box. Inside this was a ring set with jade.

Mary became convinced that Freddie was having an affair, and she was right. Sometime in 1975, Freddie had become involved with an American record producer called David Minns. He admitted to it, as well as the fact that he was bisexual. Austin ended their relationship the same day.

After coming out, Freddie had a few long-term relationships in his life. In the early 80s, he met a German restaurant owner named Winfred Kitchberger. Freddie would be seen wearing a silver wedding band, even after their relationship ended. Freddie met another man in 1984.

Like any serious music lover, Freddie was a big fan of Michael Jackson. In fact, he had been a fan long before the formation of Queen, when Jackson was a part of the Jackson 5. The two actually sat in the same recording studio at one point.

Their fourth album, A Night at the Opera, was costly to produce. Its production cost around $40,000, a small fortune back in 1975, and the band had to use three different studios to finish it. If you ever wondered why “Love of My Life” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” were so well polished, that’s why.

After receiving an invitation to go to Argentina, Queen’s members were concerned about two things: their safety and the arena’s size. Argentina was run by a military dictatorship, and they were being asked to fill an entire soccer stadium’s worth of people in one arena.

On their first night, Queen didn’t get 50,000 people—they got over 131,000 people—the largest crowd ever to see a band in one place at the time. Following that, they drew 300,000 people to Buenos Aires, where Freddie and the band thrilled them all.

It may surprise you that Freddie was a big cat fan. He loved the little fluffballs—so much so that at one point, he found himself living with ten of them. He adopted his first pair while living with Mary Austin. He called them Tom and Jerry.

With their triumphant shows concluded in South America, Queen returned home. But they were still faced with hurdles to overcome. Their second and third albums were selling in the United States, but their others were barely getting off the shelves.

Queen’s big hit single, I Want To Break Free, was selling like hot cakes, but because the music video had the band dressed up in women’s clothing, an act which Americans had not generally accepted or normalized, the video was banned.

Queen’s controversial (in the US) I Want To Break Free video cost them dearly in the American market, but at the same time, they bounced back with an incredible performance in the Live Aid concert of ‘85, which went down as one of their greatest ever shows—or greatest rocks shows, period.

Their show at Wembley Stadium refreshed them, rejuvenated them—most of all, Freddie, who was giving his audience the show of their lives. The band was eager to reach new heights and speeds. They would never falter or fail again.

After Wembley, Freddie all but vanished from the public eye after Live Aid. Behind the scenes, Freddie had been told the news: he was HIV positive. He didn’t let the truth out until the very end. He kept it secret for four years, from 1987, when he got the news, to 1991, when he died.

Freddie could no longer bear to face the cameras, or the crowd, in his condition—he could barely stand in his state. Naturally, he had to give up something which had given his life so much meaning. He had to give up performing entirely.

With his husband-in-spirit, Jim, by his bedside, surrounded by his loving pets, Freddie passed away in his London home. The world lost an icon. But as long as Freddie Mercury’s songs are heard or sung, his legend will live on forever.

Some people keep a notepad by their bed, just in case inspiration strikes in a dream or while lying about. Freddie had a whole piano installed as his bed headboard so that he could catch those creative signals as they came.

Freddie’s final public appearance would be in 1990, with the rest of the band, for Queen’s acceptance of the British Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. But the last time he appeared in public as he really was—a superstar—was in 1986 in Knebworth Park.

Freddie’s family were strict practitioners of Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world. The religion was founded by the prophet Zoroaster in Iran some 4,000 years ago. To boil it down into a single sentence, Zoroastrianism is about doing good deeds to avoid chaos and to be happy in life.

Giving names to his closest friends was something Freddie loved doing. They tended to be names that matched their “drag” personas. For example, he called Elton John “Sharon.” Elton played back into Freddie’s game, calling him “Melina.”

Freddie was always larger than life, but nothing embodies this more than the ten-foot statue built in his honor on Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland. It depicts Freddie rocking out with his bottomless mic in hand, striking his iconic pose to end all poses.

Infamous for his shaky collaborations, Freddie worked with David Bowie on “Under Pressure,” but their creative spirits clashed throughout. Nevertheless, it was obvious that the two respected each other. According to legend, the two had met each other years ago, outside the music business.

There’s no physical place to pay respects to Freddie, unlike many other musical legends. His body was cremated, and the ashes were given to Mary Austin, his wife-in-spirit and best friend. She kept them for two years without spreading them.

The AIDS pandemic of the 80s was widely feared and misunderstood by the public, especially in the United States. After his death in 1991, his bandmates put together a concert in tribute to their lost friend and to raise awareness about the disease.