Homophobia caused Queen's demise in the US ...

I wondered earlier on why there wasn't as much an interest for, and excitement in, Queen here in the US.  My only hypothesis was that somehow the life and lifestyle of the singer--Freddie Mercury--was not received well, particularly during the virulent anti-gay days of the 1970s and 1980s, which was when Queen was soaring high.

I wonder no more.

Unfortunately that was the case.  And this was from the metaphorical horse's mouth--from Brian May, make it Dr. Brian May, who was the co-founder of the group and their lead guitarist.

May was a guest in Terry Gross' "Fresh Air", and her question to him was about the rather incongruity between most of the band's fans who in those years were not quite supportive of homosexuals.  May suggested that even though the world was aware of Mercury being gay, it was something like an unspoken topic amongst his fans.  He put it so well:

"I think it was an undiscussed thing for a long time. The truth of the matter is nobody should care. Why should anyone care what sexual persuasion people have? It's about the music, and Freddie would have been the first to say that. He never hid the fact that he was turned on by men instead of by women, but strange enough, I don't think it was always the case. Because in the early days, we used to share rooms. So in the early days, I know who Freddie slept with, and they weren't men, but I think it gradually changed. And I have no idea how these things work, but it wasn't really anybody's business but his, and we never talked about it as if it were important. Why should it be important? We just made music together."

May went on to say that in the US, it was indeed the gay aspect that resulted in the group touring in America much less than they liked :(  That they were the biggest group everywhere in the world, playing to packed stadiums, except here in the States.

In particular, he referred to the video they made for "I want to break free".

In the video, which is easy to make out that it is a spoof at various levels, the Queen's players dress up as women.  May said that in the promo tour interview in the Midwest, the ashen-faces of the people when they watched the video made it all clear ...

Anyway, apparently after Wayne's World made Bohemian Rhapsody and Queen famous all over again, by when Mercury was already quite ill, Mercury's comment was that he would probably be dead before they got big in America again.  It all makes sense, now, as to why his death did not register as a huge event here in America :(

Brian May is quite a Renaissance Man.  The way he explained the physics of the acoustics of their music making to the physics of inter-stellar dust .... he came across as a wonderful lecturer too.  Dr. May is now the Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.