“Is This Going to Work?” Brian May’s First Doubts About Freddie Mercury Weren’t About Talent — They Were About Chaos
Before Freddie Mercury became the voice that could fill stadiums and silence rooms, he was something far less polished and far more unpredictable. And according to Brian May, the early days of working with him came with a strange kind of uncertainty — not because Freddie lacked presence, but because he had too much of it.
May recently recalled that when the band first began rehearsing with Freddie, it felt “unnerving.” Freddie was loud, restless, and constantly moving, running around and pushing his energy to the edge. For the people watching, it raised an honest question: was this intensity going to translate into something real, or would it drown everything around it?
May admitted they weren’t all instantly comfortable with Freddie either. Some people found him abrasive in those early moments. Still, even then, there was something undeniable about him. He might not have been the Freddie Mercury the world later worshipped, but he was already interesting. Already entertaining. Already impossible to ignore.
The Studio Changed Everything
The shift, May says, happened during Queen’s first demo sessions at De Lane Lea Studios. It wasn’t a dramatic reinvention planned over time. It was a moment of recognition that hit Freddie fast — the moment he heard his recorded voice played back.
Instead of being satisfied, Freddie reacted immediately. He didn’t like what he heard. And rather than shrugging it off, he went back in and did it again. Then again. Then again. According to May, Freddie kept repeating takes until the voice coming through the speakers matched the voice he wanted to be.
That was the real turning point. Freddie became instantly aware of his sound, and just as quickly began shaping himself into the singer he imagined. Not through luck or natural ease, but through relentless repetition and refusal to settle for anything less than his own standard.
It wasn’t just confidence. It was discipline hiding inside ambition.
Drive That Made Everyone Else Believe Too
May also described Freddie as someone who didn’t hesitate to claim big things, even before the world knew his name. Freddie would tell him, “Just give me a chance,” with the kind of certainty most people only develop after they’ve already proven themselves.
That energy, May said, wasn’t arrogance. It was drive. Optimism. A kind of forward motion that didn’t depend on external approval. Freddie carried a belief that they could be great before greatness ever arrived.
And that belief wasn’t limited to himself. May shared that Freddie was unusually supportive when it came to Brian’s own insecurities in the early days. He pushed him, encouraged him, and made him feel chosen — as if he had already decided Brian was the guitarist he needed at his side.
“He Was Jimi Hendrix in His Mind”
One of May’s most striking reflections was the way he described Freddie’s inner identity. Even when Freddie had no fame, no status, and no proof to the outside world, he already saw himself at the top. In May’s words, Freddie was Jimi Hendrix in his own mind — not in ego, but in vision.
And what made it powerful was that Freddie carried that same belief into the people around him. He would tell May that he could do anything anyone else could do, that he was capable of giving Freddie the sound he dreamed of. It wasn’t about feeding vanity. It was about building each other up into something bigger than their doubts.
The message wasn’t “I’ll be great.”
It was “We’ll be great.”
From Doubt to Dynasty
Brian May’s early uncertainty didn’t last, because Freddie didn’t stay the same. The chaos became craft. The raw energy became control. And the singer who once made the band wonder if this could work became the defining voice of an era.
Freddie Mercury went on to record fifteen albums with Queen, helping build one of the most celebrated catalogs in rock history. But May’s story makes one thing clear: the Freddie the world remembers wasn’t simply born.
He was built — by obsession, by repetition, and by a belief so strong it pulled everyone else into it.
