Nuno Bettencourt has looked back on Extreme’s heartfelt act of rebellion during 1992’s Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium – and he has no regrets.
For the event, Bettencourt says the performing artists – which included Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Def Leppard – were strictly prohibited from playing Queen material during their rapid-fire sets. But Bettencourt had other ideas.
Taking place on April 20, 1992, in front of 72,000 fans – and countless more watching at home – the show was organized in the wake of Mercury’s passing to raise awareness of AIDS, the disease that took the singer’s life.
After Metallica delivered a rousing opening salvo – playing Enter Sandman, Sad But Trueand Nothing Else Matters – Brian May introduced Extreme, deeply begrudging what was about to happen.
“Not only was it one of the greatest concerts of my life to be a part of,” Bettencourt wrote on Instagram, “but when Brian May walked out to introduce us and said, ‘More than any other group on the planet, this next band knew what Freddie and Queen were all about,’ normally I’d take the humble approach, but that statement was 1000% spot on.
“On that day, we wanted to make sure that not only true Queen fans in that stadium and watching around the world knew what Freddie meant to us – but more importantly, that Freddie, watching down from the heavens, one of the greatest composers and rock and roll singers of all time, knew what he meant to us.”
Shunning their own material, the band launched into a Queen medley that included mega-hits Bohemian Rhapsody, Keep Yourself Aliveand Stone Cold Crazycapped off with Bettencourt and vocalist Gary Cherone’s intimate rendition of More Than Words.
Most of the songs they played were later performed again by Queen with guest vocalists including James Hetfield, Roger Daltrey, and Seal. But Extreme’s tribute would have its consequences.
“Yes, we got into a lot of trouble for performing all Queen music instead of Extreme songs, as no artist was allowed to perform Queen till the all-star jam,” Bettencourt continues. “But it was fucking worth it because we needed to let everyone know how much impact Freddie had on us and celebrate the music of Queen that shaped and changed our lives.
“The only way to do that was to risk performing a Queen medley for the first time. Not very smart in front of Queen, Bowie, Elton (John), Guns (N’ Roses), Metallica, and the immense talent that was there side-stage. But we knew that would be the only way to rock the house that Queen built: Wembley Stadium.
“Having survived it, I can tell you that Freddie was in that building, ’cause the shivers and lightning shooting right through me during every second of that set was something, till this day, I’ve never felt again.”
“Thank you to all the Queen fans at Wembley that day for allowing us to entertain you. It was an honor, a privilege. A gift we’ll cherish forever.”
Speaking about the show with Kylie Olsson in 2021, Bettencourt revealed that Brian May had begged the band not to go off-piste.
“We wanted to tell Brian, and when we told him, it was the first and last time I’ve ever argued with him. He was upset that we weren’t doing us, that we were doing Queen. He was like, ‘I want you guys to celebrate all these bands here.’ He was so adamant about us not doing it, ‘Please do what you guys do’ – we weren’t even doing More Than Words (at the time).
“He finally said, ‘Look, this is your slot, you guys do what you want to do.’ He wasn’t very happy with it, but he gave us the blessing, and we went up, and we don’t regret it, it was amazing, it was what those fans wanted to hear, I believe.”
In related news, May recently revealed the Freddie Mercury tribute that lives in his very first Gibson signature guitar, and made one of his first public appearances since he suffered a stroke last year when he joined Benson Boone for a run-through of Bohemian Rhapsody at Coachella.
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