Freddie Mercury: An Illustrated Life

By Alfonso Casas and Ned Sublette

A beautifully illustrated biography of the iconic lead singer of the British rock band, Queen.

The music of Queen and powerhouse lead singer Freddie Mercury are best experienced with the volume turned all the way up. Alfonso Casas’s Freddie Mercury delivers a sonorous homage to the formidable singer and the turning points that produced a game-changing body of music that continues to inspire fans around the globe.

First published in Spain and now available worldwide, this luminous work covers Freddie’s three “births:” his birth as Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar; his adoption of the last name of Mercury and the launch of Queen with Brian May and Roger Taylor; and the emergence of the lasting legend after Freddie’s death at the age of forty-five. Casas’s evocative illustrations highlight the key moments in the singer’s transformation from child prodigy to superstar, bringing to life the bold innovator who broke free of his conventional upbringing. Chronicling events from Freddie’s marriage to Mary Austin and early fame in London’s 1970s glam scene, to the making of multiple megahits (including the six-minute chart-topper “Bohemian Rhapsody”), to his final years in a lasting relationship with Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury is an exhilarating, poignant portrait of a creative genius who lived life to the hilt.

“Through Casas’ evocative and vibrant illustrations, [Freddie Mercury] tells the story of Freddie Mercury’s three “births:” from his childhood, growing up as Farrokh Bulsara in Tanzania, to Queen’s launch to his death at 45.” —Alcalde

“A beautifully illustrated biography of Freddie Mercury . . . Casas lovingly presents a creative take on the life of Freddie Mercury through the use of dozens of vibrant drawings.” —OutWord Magazine 

“[Freddie Mercury] is an appealingly modest book: Casas aims to let Mercury shine, but his striking illustrations shine in their own right as well.” —The Current

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: May 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781477321270

Book preview

Freddie Mercury

An Illustrated Life

Alfonso Casas

University of Texas Press

Austin

First Edition: October 2018

© 2018 by Alfonso Casas

© 2018 for the Spanish-language edition throughout the world: Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S.A.U.

Travessera de Gràcia, 47-49. 08021 Barcelona

First University of Texas Press edition, 2020

English translation © 2020 by Ned Sublette

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:

Permissions

University of Texas Press

P.O. Box 7819

Austin, TX 78713-7819

utpress.utexas.edu/rp-form

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Casas, Alfonso, author. | Sublette, Ned, 1951–, translator.

Title: Freddie Mercury : an illustrated life / Alfonso Casas ; translated from the Spanish by Ned Sublette.

Other titles: Freddie Mercury, una biografía. English

Description: First University of Texas Press edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019034386

ISBN 978-1-4773-2063-1 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-4773-2126-3 (library ebook)

ISBN 9781477321263 (non-library ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Mercury, Freddie. | Queen (Musical group) | Rock musicians—England—Biography. | Singers—England—Biography. | Gay men—England—Biography.

Classification: LCC ML420.M389 C3713 2020 | DDC 782.42166092 [B]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019034386

doi:10.7560/320631

He lived life to the full. He devoured life. He celebrated every minute. And, like a great comet, he left a luminous trail which will sparkle for many a generation to come.

—BRIAN MAY, 2011

PROLOGUE

I can’t tell you what my favorite movie is, or what book I’d take to a desert island. But if you ask me my favorite song, no problem.

My first contact with this particular song was in the mid-’90s, in a cover version by an R&B group. Access to information was not yet a click away (I feel a little older as I write this), so it took me a while to figure out that Bohemian Rhapsody was originally done by a group called . . .

Queen. From that moment on, the more I’ve listened to Queen—and to its lead singer, Freddie Mercury—the greater the impact they’ve had, not only on the music you hear on the radio, but in my life in general. I’d already sung We Are the Champions at a ballgame. I’d stomped the floor and clapped my hands to the rhythm of We Will Rock You. Years before that, I’d been excited about Who Wants to Live Forever. Even Freddie Mercury’s iconic look was already carved into my brain and I didn’t know it. It was like a puzzle missing only one piece.

That piece was Queen. Bit by bit I came to understand that the group’s importance transcended musical boundaries. All the members of Queen, and especially Freddie Mercury, offer us a way to understand a moment when everything seemed new and fascinating.

Many changes came in the Queen years, not all of them good. But even in the darkest moments of the ’70s and ’80s—foundational decades for our lives, even for those of us who came along later—the figure of Freddie Mercury blazed. Freddie lived like an authentic rock star, but not in the stereotypical way. Rock was a genre set in its ways, and he changed the rules of the game, breaking all the barriers that supposedly existed. His iconic mustache, his tight shorts, his leather jackets weren’t only aesthetic decisions. They broke with the classic rock-star model. He was an example of how a person