“When I heard Fred's voice for the first time, I thought, God, he'll never be a singer. He sounds like a strangled sheep”: Roger Taylor on what he thought when he first heard Freddie Mercury

Queen drummer Roger Taylor has a new solo album out and as part of the promotion he’s been on BBC Radio 2 choosing his Tracks Of My Years on the Vernon Kay show.

Aside from picking ten favourite tracks, it involves an interview, and inevitably the subject of Freddie Mercury came up. Taylor revealed that when he first heard Freddie’s voice for the first time, “I thought, God, he’ll never be a singer. He sounded like a strangled sheep.”

Taylor then elaborated: “It’s really an indication of his strength of mind, because he really was, he invented himself, you know. He was a lovely shy guy really with a tremendous strength of character.

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“He changed his name. He had this innate musicality, and his voice just sort of, as he sang more and more and more, it just became stronger and stronger and stronger, and better and better and better… He was loud. He was powerful.”

Queen’s Roger Taylor chooses the Tracks Of My Years inc. The Kinks, The Who, Radiohead & Bob Dylan – YouTube
Queen's Roger Taylor chooses the Tracks Of My Years inc. The Kinks, The Who, Radiohead & Bob Dylan - YouTube

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In Queen’s early days, Taylor recalls it was Mercury who drove them on even when it looked as if nothing would ever happen for the band. “The music business is a tough business,” the drummer said. “I think you have to be single-minded and focused on what you want to achieve. We were very ambitious in Queen, and Freddie was very ambitious.

“He used to say, ‘You know, talent will out, my dear,’ etc. And it sort of drove us. And you have to have those kind of hopes.”

Eventually, of course, Queen found success. On a huge scale. “We felt of ourselves as a people’s band, yeah,” says Taylor, “And which was why we loved to encourage audience participation…singing, stamping, clapping. And Freddie was, of course, an incredible communicator at doing that, and we were lucky to have him.”

Asked by Kay how often he thinks about the singer, Taylor replies: “Oh, every day. We never really had a cross word over those many years together. He was absolutely lovely.”

And the records that Taylor chose? Well, there are quite a few that aren’t much of a surprise – The Kinks’ You Really Got Me, My Generation by The Who, Bowie’s Space Oddity, plus a couple that stray outside the parameters of classic rock: Radiohead’s Creep and Hoppipolla by Sigur Rós.