(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover)
Mon 29 September 2025 8:00, UK
14 albums in, surely things are getting tough for any band. How do you keep your creativity up like that? How do you keep pushing on with new ideas and new experiments to keep things fresh? They would be the typical questions, but the making of Innuendo for Queen was anything by typical – it was tragic.
By now, everyone knows the story. Queen formed in the 1970s and quickly shot to fame. Their legacy became one of vibrancy and theatricality thanks to tracks like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and their generally hyper-maximalist approach to music-making. Freddie Mercury was the face of that, and the voice, as his stage presence always led the way. Then he got sick.
By now, everyone knows that story, too. Mercury died in November 1991 due to AIDS complications. His condition had been worsening rapidly at a time when there was no credible treatment. Thankfully, now, an HIV diagnosis no longer feels like a death sentence. But in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Mercury was experiencing it during the peak of the epidemic that panicked the public and media alike. The fear spread and turned societies into frightened animals ready to lash out. That’s how it felt, and that’s how it was handled.
So, he hid it. While other bands might have gone into their 14th recording simply wondering how to push forward, how to be heard and how to evolve, Queen were wondering how they’d even make it, and how they’d protect their singer.
By the time Innuendo was recorded between March 1989 and November 1990, the band knew about Mercury’s diagnosis. That came in 1987, but for years prior, he’d already been hounded by the press spreading rumours about his health. He told the papers that he was “perfectly fit and healthy,” but by the time the Innuendo sessions came about, after deciding not to tour their previous album, it was obvious he wasn’t, as his appearance was increasingly gaunt.
He made it clear that the public wasn’t to ever be told about his condition. It wasn’t so much out of shame, although part of that likely came into it given the times, but it was that he wanted Queen’s albums to sell out of joy or admiration from fans, not sympathy.
With all this going on, the making of a new album became a lifeline. With the press closing in, the band decided to relocate to Montreux to work in peace, giving Mercury a place to hide and to focus. There, Innuendo was born.
Due to his health, the album had to be made slower than their others, but that really only made it more thoughtful and considered. It’s also an album undeniably powered by fight, as the last record released within Mercury’s lifetime captures his enduring passion and his drive to keep going, caught in the electrifying rock of it all.
Beyond Mercury, though, it was a healing record. Finally, the band had reconsidered how they credited their work. Before, arguments broke out often, as they used to only credit contributing members of the track. On this album, the decision was made to credit the entire band for everything, providing a boost of team morale at a time when their friendship group needed more than ever to come together.
It ends aptly. “My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies / Fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die / I can fly, my friends,” Mercury sings on ‘The Show Must Go On’, the album’s closing track. Concluding with a song about his desire to go on despite the fact that his health likely won’t allow it, that’s the mood that captures this whole record.
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