>> We actually only spent 8 hours. We arrived in the afternoon and we left in the evening. >> They didn’t meet at a major recording studio. Instead, Freddy and his assistant Peter Freestone went to Michael’s home in Enino, California, where his mother also lived. >> And it was just the three of you in the studio.
Is that right? So, you were with him in my four of us in the studio because there was the tape operator. >> Yes. But that was it. >> Peter, who was there that day, is our most reliable source for what actually happened. His account differs sign from some of the stories we’ve heard over the years. Before entering the studio, Michael gave them a tour of the house, including the outdoor area where he kept some of his animals.
At one point, a llama spit on Freddy Mercury. >> Los Angeles. It was a beautiful day, white shirt, white jeans, white trainers, but it had been raining a few days before. And we would take, Michael says, “Look, before we go in, I’ll take you around the animals that I have.” And we were walking around and I could see Freddy’s face just getting more and more annoyed and I thought, “But what’s happened?” Nothing. I can’t.
And I looked down and the shoes were brown and the bottom of the white jeans were going brown because of the mud that we were going through. Um, but that’s where the llamas come in because he had two llamas and one of them spat at Freddy. This incident was later turned into a more dramatic story. In the documentary, The Great Pretender, Queen’s manager Jim Beachch recalls that Michael kept bringing a llama into the studio and that Freddy even called him saying, “You’ve got to get me out of here.
” >> They got on well, except for the fact that I suddenly got a call from Freddy uh saying, “Miami dear, can you get on over here because you got to get me out of this studio.” I said, “Well, what is the problem?” He said, “I’m recording with a llama.” He said, “Michael’s bringing his pet llama into the studio every day, and I’m really not used to recording with a llama, and I’ve had enough, and I want to get out.
” But Freestone, who was actually there, says that’s not true. The llama was never inside the studio. They were only there for one single afternoon, about 8 hours total. So, was Jim Beach exaggerating? Possibly. Sometimes stories evolve in the retelling. That day, the plan was simple. record three songs, one written by Michael, one by Freddy, and one co-written together.
Michael played them a song called State of Shock. It was nearly finished. Only vocals were missing. Freddy recorded his part on the spot, and it worked beautifully. The plan was for him to return another day for the final mix, but he never had the time. So, in the end, it was Mick Jagger who replaced him on the released version.
>> Michael called me up and said, “Look, I want to finish a song. I want it on the Jackson’s album.” And I said, “I can’t come over cuz I’m in Munich.” And he said, “Is it okay if if Michael if if Mick does it?” So I said, “Fine. You know, songs are songs. I mean, as long as our friendship carries on, we can um write all kinds of songs.
” >> Just before Freddy laid down his vocals for State of Shock, there’s a curious detail most fans don’t know. this song that this 12 year old kid came up with the type of shot and I said look write some lyrics. So he wrote some lyrics in there. Then I put the music to it with guitars and stuff and I put the melody to the vocal.
I always wanted to do something. Because of this, for years, many believed that the well-known guitarist Randy Hansen had co-written the song. >> A lot of people think I wrote this song called State of Shock. >> Yeah. >> And BMI started sending me checks for it, and I never wrote the song. >> They had me listed as the right.
>> Yeah, I know. I still listed that I wrote it, but I didn’t write it. >> In reality, he had nothing to do with it, yet still received royalty checks by mistake. Next came Freddy’s song. There must be more to life than this. He had already been working on it with Queen, but the band couldn’t quite finish it, so Freddy brought it to Michael.
They recorded a raw take, Freddy on piano, Michael improvising lyrics and melodies. He was writing at that point. There must be more to life than this. >> Mhm. >> Um, and I mean it wasn’t finished or anything. And so what Freddy did, he gave Michael the words that he’d written so far and he came to the end of the words and there is a tape somewhere where you hear Freddy just saying adlib adlib and Michael does he just carries on with words coming out of his head.
Robots in a world without children. >> Freddy originally intended to include the duet on his first solo album alongside other guest appearances, but time and logistics made that impossible. The song was eventually released solo on Mr. Bad Guy in 1985. Years later, Queen would revisit the track after Freddy’s death.
We had the track. Freddy had brought this song in. We played around with it, recorded a backing track for it, but we thought, hm, needs a little bit more work, whatever. So, it was put to one side. One evening, Freddy’s out with Michael Jackson. I think they’re at Michael’s house and he has a little studio there. And they go in and they say, “Oh, let’s just try this.” Um, see what happens.
And Michael’s finding his way with the song. You can tell by listening to the outtakes. But what happened was we were able to find the multittracks firstly for the Queen sessions and secondly for the sessions that uh the very informal sessions that Freddy did with Michael. So we were able to bring them together, get them all out, sort them all out and with ProTools um stick them together using the original Queen Studio sessions and Michael’s vocals from that day in Onino.
They created a new mix released in 2014 produced by William Orbit. The third song was supposed to be a co-written track. its working title, Victory. >> They decided they wanted to do a track from the beginning together, and it had the sort of working name of Victory. >> We wrote a song together called Victory. We haven’t finished it at all.
And um I hear that Jackson’s new album was called Victory, but I I don’t think the song’s on it. So, he’s just used the title. >> I’ll kill him if he used the song without me. The thing is there was only the tape operator there. So the way Freddy recorded, he would go into the studio, he would have an idea in his head, but he would then get Roger to play a fiveinut bass drum track just for five minutes and then Freddy would create the song around it.
And of course there was no drama. There was no nothing. So Freddy explained this to Michael and Michael was ah okay, come with me. Come. He took us out of the studio down a corridor and at the end there was this wooden door and we came to a toilet. You open the door and there’s a microphone and everything set up in there because for for Michael it was the best sound for the for vocal recordings.
The best vocals I do are done in this room because of the acoustic in here, the tiles and everything. It’s incredible. And he says, “Okay, I’ve got an idea for this drum. You know, if you have to have a drum, we’ll have a drum.” >> He says, “Well, now what? I can do. I will just sort of keep banging the door.
And Freddy just looked. He says, “Phi, do it.” So I had to bang this toilet door for 5 minutes. >> Which was the initial drum beat for this third song that they never really did a lot of work on. >> So somewhere in the Jackson Archives, there’s this track of me banging a toilet door for 5 minutes. >> Yes.
Split tree was one of the songs, but he wanted to use the the title for the Jackson thing, but the song is still still there. It’s probably just waiting until the two of us get together and finish it. You know, it’s very very difficult when two different, you know, musicians trying to get together. I mean, they have he has to do his stuff.
And uh it’s just that when I was um spending some time in LA and we’re friends, he said, “Oh, why don’t we try something?” So, I mean, one day it’ll probably be finished. According to Peter Freestone, a 5-minute recording of someone banging a bathroom door, possibly still sitting in the Jackson Archives, is all that remains of victory.
There were no lyrics, no real structure. The idea faded. Still, Michael liked the name and reused it the following year as the title of the Jackson’s 15th studio album. The collaborations between Freddy Mercury and Michael Jackson were full of promise, but ultimately unfinished. Not because of feuds, animals, or chaos. >> All of this about they hated each other.
Fred and Michael wouldn’t talk to Freddy because of drugs. And it’s it’s rubbish. >> Two of the busiest and most brilliant minds in music simply didn’t have the time. And maybe that’s the real tragedy of victory. A song born between two legends lost in the whirlwind of their genius. Thanks for watching Behind the Track.
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