“I thought up the name Queen early on. It couldn’t have been King, it doesn’t have the same ring or aura as Queen. It was a very regal name and it sounded splendid. It’s strong, very universal, and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I feel that the name Queen actually fitted that time.

It lent itself to a lot of things, like the theatre, and it was grand. It was very pompous, with all kinds of connotations. It meant so much. It wasn’t just one precise label. I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it. Anyway, we always preferred to think of Queen in the regal sense rather than in the queer one. We just knew our music would override the image because we’d concentrate on putting out good product the whole time.”

Freddie Mercury