The Funny Idea Freddie Mercury Had That The Rest of Queen Vetoed

Freddie Mercury certainly was someone who embraced whimsy and other playful ideas. According to Brian May, Queen welcomed this flare from Mercury. Of course, not every idea the iconic singer had was a winner, even if it was delightfully silly.May recalled in a new interview with Mojo about a funny idea Mercury had while the band was recording the 1989 album The Miracle. "He came in one day and announced, ‘I’ve got this amazing idea. You know Michael Jackson has just put out this album called 'Bad'? … Well, listen… What do you think about us calling our next album 'Good'?’ said May. "We all looked at each other and said, ‘Well, maybe we should think about it, Freddie.’" The guitarist added, "It wasn’t one of his world-shattering ideas, but looking back, maybe we were wrong...”Sure, Mercury didn't win over the rest of the band with that title suggestion. But May said that the band "tended to encourage" Mercury's ideas, which he called "off the wall and cheeky and different." (Whether or not May intended to invoke the King of Pop with that "off the wall" mention is unknown, but here's hoping it was a happy accident.) Speaking of Queen and Potential Veto Power... Of the surviving members of Queen, May and drummer Roger Taylor remain visibly active in band business. However, bassist John Deacon, who hasn't appeared with Queen since a one-off performance with Elton John in 1997 in Paris in Ballet for Life, is still involved with business matters.May revealed in an Oct. 2024 interview with Mojo that Deacon still has a "'yes' or 'no' say" in things. May noted, "We get messages that he’s happy with what we’re doing, but he doesn’t want the stress of being involved creatively, and we respect that."The guitarist added, "Freddie [Mercury] we can’t talk to, sadly. But the four of us worked as a team for so long that Roger and I have a pretty good idea what our fellow Queen members would be saying. This thing is longer than anybody’s marriage."