it’s so unfair. there are a lot of instances of freddie discussing AIDS which i didn’t know existed until i read freddie mercury: his life in his own words. he was terrified of it and drastically modified his lifestyle in response. he wasn’t oblivious and he wasn’t cavalier.
“I pray I’ll never get AIDS. So many friends have it. Some have died, others won’t last much longer. I’m terrified that I’ll be the next. Immediately after I have sex I think, “Suppose that was the one? Suppose the virus is now in my body?” I jump in the shower and try to scrub myself clean although I know it’s useless.”
“I was totally devastated when I heard about my friends who have died from AIDS. It brought the seriousness of the illness home to me. I learnt the hard way. When you’re young it is so much harder. I was thinking the other day, we were lucky to have sown our wild oats when we did, but they are just starting out. It is something the young have got to get to grips with.”
“I used to live for sex but now I’ve changed. I’ve stopped going out, stopped the nights of wild partying. I’ve almost become a nun. It’s amazing, I thought sex was a very important thing to me but now I realize I’ve just gone completely the other way. Once, I was extremely promiscuous, it was excess in every direction, but now I’m totally different. I have stopped all that and I don’t miss that kind of life. Everything is fine.”
“You see, I’m one of those people that can go from black to white. I don’t like intermediary measures. It’s quite easy for me to completely give up things. I can give up alcohol at the drop of a hat. AIDS has frightened me to death and so I’ve just stopped having sex. I just like titillation now. I’m into titillation. It’s much more fun. What more can I do? I’ve stopped having sex and started growing tulips!”
“You can’t expect people to just abstain from sex forever. I think the message of safe sex is essential and crucial. Anyone who sleeps around should have an AIDS test.”
“It is a very, very serious thing we are dealing with. I think people have to wait now, better times are ahead. This thing about safe sex is all very worthwhile, but you can still have fun. You can’t expect people to just give up sex. People get freaked, they think they have AIDS and they shoot themselves, and then people find out that they didn’t have it after all. People should be careful, but not paranoid.”
“We’re living with it now and it’s there, on your doorstep, and you’d be a fool to say that you haven’t heard of it. You can’t get away from it. But if you get into the nitty-gritty of it, there are friends of mine who have died of AIDS. It’s devastating.”
“How much more can one harp on about it? I am not the saviour of the fucking thing! I like those television ads where it says everybody is equal with AIDS– like money doesn’t mean anything. AIDS is not prejudiced. AIDS is not prejudiced about who you are or what you do. It gets you!”
“Before, I was very greedy. I was promiscuous, that’s true, but I’ve stopped all that because practicality came into it. You know what I’m talking about. It’s up to the individual. Most people live by sex, but a lot of people can’t do without it. A lot of people just have it as a pastime. I don’t want to suddenly say that sex is boring or overrated because that would be farcical– having just said that I was very promiscuous, that would be a contradiction.”
