The Queens drummer is brutally honest about Freddie Mercury’s voice

Queens Drummer Roger Taylor looks back on how lead singer Freddie Mercury’s voice needed a lot of work before it became iconic.

The 75-year-old drummer was speaking at the launch of the band’s self-titled debut album, which was originally released in 1973.

“I don’t think you realize how terrible he sounded before,” the musician said of Mercury, before explaining how the late singer’s famously operatic voice left his mother terrified when the band first started.

Roger said Freddy – who died in 1991 of AIDS-related bronchial pneumonia – eventually “turned out to be great”, but his signature crowd-pleasing vibrato needed some fine-tuning.

“I mean, he sounded like a mad goat. He sounded great, his vibrato. My mother’s face when she saw him,” Taylor added.

Taylor then moved to the good place, remembering it Bohemian Rhapsody lyricist and lead singer as “our wonderful Freddie we will never forget”.

“He became this colossal force that could reach the back of any concert or stadium in Argentina. He reached everyone,” the drummer recalls.

After the band broke up following Freddie’s death at age 45, Roger and Brian May continued to tour under the band name with lead singer Adam Lambert.

The launch event held at London’s Ham Yard Hotel celebrated the new mixed, mastered, expanded edition of of the Queen iconic self-titled debut album.

Brian claims the album is now in better shape than it was when it was originally released in 1973, according to Guitar.com.

“I’m not saying the original version was bad – it just wasn’t what we dreamed of. Freddy and John, too, were always aware of this thing in our past that seemed like it couldn’t be fixed,” he said. the outlet.

He shared that “every instrument has been re-examined from the bottom up,” explaining “the guitars were originally recorded too dry, so we fixed that.”