Before Freddie Mercury’s untimely death in 1991, Queen had spent two decades performing and recording their global hits together. Although they didn’t always get on and fought as brothers would, unlike other rock bands of their era, they never split up.
Queen drummer Roger Taylor puts this down specifically to Freddie Mercury’s emotional intelligence, as revealed in a brand new interview. The 76-year-old appeared alongside his wife in his first-ever podcast appearance on I’m ADHD! No You’re Not, hosted by Paul Whitehouse and his wife, Dr Mine Conkbayir.
Roger was asked what the most emotionally intelligent thing Freddie understood about human beings that people really still don’t fully appreciate.
The drummer replied: “Good question but I can only talk about the human condition in the context of the band really. He realised that we all needed one another for the chemistry to work. And I think it was at some point in the ‘80s that he was the one that… because there was always arguments about, ‘Oh, I’ve got this song. It should be the single. what gets on the album?, etc etc.”
“And he was the one that said, ‘Look, let’s just put all this to bed and [have] everything written by all of us, and so it’s equal shares.” And he got that. He completely got that, and he realised that we were a band. It wasn’t Fred and the others.”
Roger then shared those blunt eight words that kept Queen stuck together.
He added: “It was… And he’d always say that, he says, ‘Don’t call me the leader. I’m the singer.’ I think that really came across as well, because of course he’s a towering sort of presence”
I’m ADHD! No You’re Not is available on all podcast platforms every Thursday.