Credit: Raph Pour-Hashemi / Carl Lender
Mon 5 October 2026 10:52, UK
Queen’s Brian May has reflected on the loss of his late bandmate Freddie Mercury, who tragically died in 1991, aged 45.
Mercury kept his battle with HIV/AIDS incredibly private, not even telling the rest of Queen until 1989, which was two years after he received his official diagnosis.
He ultimately only revealed that he’d been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS on November 23rd, 1991, and died just 24 hours later at his home in Kensington.
Now, in a new interview with The Times, May has lifted the lid on their final performance as Queen, which famously took place at Knebworth Park on August 9th, 1986, attracting a crowd of more than 120,000.
“He came off stage at Knebworth and said: ‘I can’t do this any more,’ ” May shared, before adding that he initially thought it was just hyperbole after a tiring tour, “He did have a tendency to be dramatic, so we thought Freddie was just being Freddie.”
However, with the benefit of hindsight, May now views that five-word comment through a different lens entirely, admitting, “But I now realise he already knew the prognosis, which was grim.”
The guitarist continued, “I remember reading about young men dying in America, and then we saw Freddie with these strange symptoms, so we put two and two together. It’s incredible that he carried on with such confidence and energy to the very end.”
In the same interview, Roger Taylor revealed that he was on his way to visit Mercury when he was told the devastating news that he’d died, and shared of the impact it had on the group, “It really broke us up, and I don’t think John Deacon did cope. He went to pieces. He didn’t want to go on in the music industry after that.”
Meanwhile, May conceded that he thought it would be over for Queen after Mercury’s death, stating, “We always said that if any of us went, that was the end.”
Elsewhere, May confirmed that Queen’s days as a touring act are now over, which was a decision that he made “18 months ago” after losing a “close family friend” while on tour in the US and unable to attend their funeral.
May concluded decisively, “I have a wife [the actor Anita Dobson], grandchildren and a lot of astrophysics I want to do, so I’m thinking maybe 50 years is enough.”
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