Queen are to release a previously unheard track featuring vocals recorded by late frontman Freddie Mercury.
The band’s surviving members discovered the song in their archives and it dates from ‘The Miracle’ recording sessions during which they laid down around 30 tracks for the 1989 album – many of which were never released.
Speaking with Zoe Ball on BBC Radio 2 over the weekend (04.06.22-05.06.22), drummer Roger Taylor explained: “We did find a little gem from Freddie, that we’d kind of forgotten about. And it was. It’s wonderful. Actually, it was real discovery. It’s from ‘The Miracle’ sessions, and I think it’s going to be out in September.”
Host Zoe then asked: “This is incredible. It always amazes me how you can lose a little gem like that. And when you find it again, who actually found it?”
Guitarist Brian May replied: “It was kind of hiding in plain sight. We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t really rescue that’. But in fact, we went in there again and our wonderful engineering team went, ‘Okay, we can do this and this’. It’s like kind of stitching bits together.”
Brian then added of the song: “It’s beautiful. It’s touching.”
Roger went on: “It’s a very passionate piece.”
Freddie died in 1991 after suffering complications related to AIDS. The band has continued touring with vocalists Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert.
The interview with the band took place during the BBC’s coverage of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations which took place across a four-day bank holiday weekend.
Queen + Adam Lambert were among the acts which performed at the Platinum Party at the Palace concert on Saturday night (04.06.22) and they had the honour of their song ‘We Will Rock You’ being tapped out by the Queen during a skit she filmed with Paddington Bear.