Freddie Mercury: A Life, In His Own Words

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I'll be honest here, I hadn't heard before that Freddie has an autobiography and the words his life in his own words picked my interest. But as the pages turn, we see a Freddie Mercury gradually changing the priorities in his life to one more sedate and necessarily changed by the cloud of the HIV/AIDS virus beginning to shadow the gay community.

Another thing I love is the constant name-dropping (cue fan-girling when Phil Collins is mentioned) and the direct references to songs (cue internal CD player). No assumptions are made and no judgments are passed, as the book is entirely told from Freddie’s own words. In 2006, Time Asia named him as one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years, and he continues to be cited as one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music.

It was an easy read though, and I found it extremely interesting to read something from Freddie Mercury's own point of view. Freddie Mercury of Queen performs on stage at Groenoordhal, Leiden, Netherlands, 20th September 1984.

While the concept of bringing Freddie Mercury’s life to light with only his own words is lovely in theory, I do wish there had been more establishing facts. I have no criticism for the words of Freddie Mercury himself, but the way this book was put together wasn't that cohesive and because it was taken from lots of different interviews, some parts of it were very repetitive. I think this kind of memoir is much, much better than reading a whole "he was born xxx, he went to xxx school". Freddie Mercury is one of my icons, and the tragedy of his passing touches me very strongly as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

I've read almost all of the biographies out there about Freddie Mercury, and I learned something from each one, but this book is the one that will make you feel like you really got to know the man behind the legend. So I did, having been a Queen band fan since they first came onto the scene very much in my early years and now at 72 years, i must admit that I did know that this book existed. Told across 20 chapters and 194 pages, this is Freddie’s life in his own words - delivered in his own inimitable, unpredictable, invariably funny, often poignant, and always entertaining way. Prior to starting this book I told myself I would give it an honest star-rating that was not at all influenced by my Freddie Mercury-loving bias. His rise to fame in the band followed by the media coverage of his lifestyle and finally his tragic passing due to AIDS have been well documented in books, documentaries, and even the film Bohemian Rhapsody.

He died of bronchopneumonia induced by HIV (AIDS) on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease. I also wished that the quotes had been credited; who they were spoken to and especially when they were said would have helped immensely to put things in perspective.As much as i love Queen band this was my first book to read about them but more about Freddie Mercury it was a brilliant book and it sounded just like him (i mean what i have seen on youtube interviews with him) . I would never believe that a book would contain his actual words if it was filled with details of his sexlife or his private life. Quindi la mia conoscenza dei Queen riguarda più la loro musica piuttosto che le loro vite private: però non posso dire che Freddie Mercury.