“I have to say, Freddie tends to have the image of being someone who’s like a diva and won’t compromise, but actually, Freddie was a wonderful force of coherence. If he was questioned in the interviews about being the leader of the band, he would always say, ‘No, I’m not the leader, I’m the lead singer, but we are a democracy.’
It was absolutely true. So very often, Roger and John would be pulling in opposite directions. Roger and myself always in opposite directions. Freddie would be able to find the sort of glue to make it still hang together.
So I think we all owe Freddie a lot because of that. The catalyst that he was apart from being a great creator in his own right. He was part of the essential glue that made this very kind of rocky organization that managed to keep creating.
You see, Freddie is different levels, too, because on one level, yes, he was always a rockstar, he was singing in Kensington Market, going around and calling anyone he met, just generally being a flower, a very confident.
He behaved as if he was Robert Plant at the time, and nobody minded him because he just had that aura about him. But underneath it, no, massive insecurity, massive shyness, right to the end.
He had a very private side to him. He faced up to his insecurities by building himself in the way he wanted to be. Freddie always spoke quite boldly, and inside there was a very insecure person. But, on the outside, he was a warrior.
Freddie’s a very self-made creature. If you peeled up all the layers of the onion, you would find a lot of complexity, a lot of which he denied, which is smart. ” ♥️
~ Brian May, 2022
