Freddie Mercury‘s official biographer, Lesley-Ann Jones has provided a new interview in which she admitted that Mercury once confessed to her that he felt “imprisoned” by fame.
A revised version of the 2011 biography of Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury, has re-entered the book charts following the recent release of the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Jones has given a new interview to Billboard following the renewed interest in her book, “I adored the man. It’s thrilling that so many people are now getting to read his unexpurgated story.”
Jones recounted her memories of the legendary frontman, “For such a flamboyant performer, he was an incredibly shy man,” she said. “He was inherently gentle and kind, but he could be waspish and cruel. [The recent Biopic] hasn’t scraped the surface of his multiple contradictions.”
“Over the years that I toured with Queen, I had more than my share of downtime moments with him. He was candid with me about the ways in which fame and fortune had compromised and even ruined him. He craved anonymity and normality, much of the time.”
However, according to the NME, Jones’ most heartfelt memory was an encounter in 1986 where she was, “sitting with him late at night on the banks of Lake Geneva in Montreux, staring out across the still, black water towards the soaring Alps.
“Freddie talked that night about being ‘imprisoned’ by fame. He said he wanted to be buried there without fanfare when his time came — he already knew that his days were numbered. ‘Just throw me in the lake when I go,’ he said.”
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