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Michael Jackson And Freddie Mercury Dueted In The '80s Until A Llama Broke Them Up
Freddie Mercury (Photo by Hulton Archives/Getty)
Three duets that Michael Jackson recorded with Queen frontman Freddie Mercury 30 years ago will be released this fall. There might have been more, but for one pesky llama.
According to The Times of London, the demos were recorded in 1983 at Jackson's home studio. They report that a larger project never happeneed due to the singers' conflicting schedules.
This morning's Good Day LA said their collaboration ended after Jackson showed up unannounced with his pet llama at Mercury's house.
As Rolling Stone notes, the llama was indeed a divisive issue: Queen's manager, Jim "Miami" Beach, recalls that the duo's meeting was a bit tumultuous. "Mercury rang me and said: 'Miami, dear, can you get over here? You've got to get me out of here, I'm recording with a llama.'"
Jackson told Rolling Stone that he was a fan of Mercury's, and that Mercury was the one who reached out to him about working together on the Jacksons' next album in 1983.
The songs,"There Must Be More to Life Than This," "State of Shock" and "Victory" (which provided the title of the Jacksons' 1984 album), were recorded but weren't cleared for release until 2011.
Queen guitarist Brian May confirmed that the tracks will be released this fall. He said that the songs are "exciting, challenging, emotionally taxing. But cool."
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In Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury Mercury is quoted as saying, "They were great songs, but the problem was time—as we were both very busy at that period."
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