Fun Fact: Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson collaborated on three songs back in the ’80s. Unfortunately, those duets were never finished due to an interesting incident in the studio.
Bassist Jo Burt, who played on Mercury’s 1985 solo album Mr. Bad Guy, told the that Jackson’s pet llama, Louie, is the reason why those likely incredible duets are incomplete.
“I think the last straw was when Michael brought his pet llama into the studio,” said Burt. “I think Freddie sort of took umbrage to that.”
The New York Post notes that this story was corroborated by Queen manager Jim “Miami” Beach in the 2012 documentary, Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender. Beach said in the doc, “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.’”
The three duets involving Mercury and Jackson were “Victory,” “State of Shock,” and “There Must Be More to Life Than This.” The New York Post reports, “Mercury would go on to release a solo version of ‘There Must Be More to Life Than This’ on ‘Mr. Bad Guy,’ and Jackson ended up recording ‘State of Shock’ with Mick Jagger for 1984’s ‘Victory,’ his last album with his brothers.”
While it’s a bit of a bummer these duets were never completed, we’d pay good money to have heard Mercury’s entire phone call to Queen’s manager about MJ’s llama. What an iconic story, all-around!
