“I thought it was a terrible name. But Brian was my friend. I’d just met Freddie”: How Queen almost became Build Your Own Boat

British singer, songwriter and record producer Freddie Mercury (1946 - 1991) of British rock band Queen with his friend Mary Austin.

Mary Austin, the woman who was Freddie Mercury’s lover and later his confidante and ‘best friend ’, has decided to go public about her relationship with the rock legend. She’s publishing a book that features Mercury’s old notebooks and lyrics and has given an extensive interview to the Guardian.

When he died in 1991, Austin inherited Freddie’s Kensington house and half his estate, including four silver trunks filled with the singer’s lyrics and notebooks. “To say I was overwhelmed is an understatement,” she says now. “I couldn’t look at the lyrics. I felt as I did when I originally packed them – that they were his personal belongings and I was being offered an opportunity to delve into them, and I couldn’t do that.”