!["Freddie Mercury Reflects on Songwriting in 1985 Interview: 'I Long for a Bernie Taupin, But I Prefer to Do It All Myself—I'm Quite Selfish'"]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Freddie-Mercury-Reflects-on-Songwriting-in-1985-Interview-I-Long-758x427.jpg "\"Freddie Mercury Reflects on Songwriting in 1985 Interview: 'I Long for a Bernie Taupin, But I Prefer to Do It All Myself—I'm Quite Selfish'\"] 1")
A new Youtube series has launched that features a largely forgotten interview Freddie Mercury gave in support of his 1985 Mr Bad Guy album.
Parts one and two of the interview the Queen frontman gave to journalist David Wigg are already online (see below). In it, Freddie talks about his approach to songwriting.
“The structure and melody comes easier to me,” he tells Wigg. “It’s the lyrical content I find hard. I like to write nice little catchy tunes. It’s easier for me to write a melody but in terms of lyrics I find that hard. I’m not a poet.
“I hate writing lyrics. I wish somebody else could do it. I wish I had a Bernie Taupin. But I’m not like that. I like to do it all myself, I’m a greedy bitch”.
He continued: “My songs are all under the label ‘emotion’. It’s emotion and feeling. Because I have gone through all that so I’m encompassing… So I’m gathering back research, which is my own and then putting them into songs.
“I’d love to write songs about something completely different, but they all seem to end up in a very emotional and tragic way. Maybe I’m a very tragic person. I don’t know why, but there’s an element of humour at the end. I’m a very loving person, you know.”
Wigg suggested that the songs on Mr Bad Guy were quite diverse because of Freddie’s changing moods. To which the singer replied: “I’m a man of extremes, you know? I change from day to day, like a chameleon. Each day is very different to me. I look forward to that. I don’t want to be the same person every day. The way this album has turned out is just a whole spectrum of how my life is.”
His current single at the time of the interview was Made In Heaven, which prompted Wigg to ask if Freddie thought he’d get to heaven. “No, I don’t want to. Hell is much better. Look at the interesting people that you’re going to meet down there.”
