Freddie Mercury is a hugely missed figure, and for many, there’ll never be another rock vocalist like him. His performance at Wembley Stadium at Live Aid will live on in the history books for eternity, and at that moment, there was nobody who could touch Mercury.
Characteristically, the outwardly confident Mercury believed no other vocalist could compete with him, but he admired Robert Plant greatly and considered Led Zeppelin an unstoppable force. The respect between them was mutual, with Plant once saying: “Freddie Mercury sang all these songs originally, and he sang them better than we’re going to sing them. He sang them in the correct keys and sang them with confidence, and he sang them well.”
Plant’s positive comments about the Queen frontman made Mercury warm to him, and he semi-jokingly claimed it was why he was so kind about Led Zeppelin. However, underneath his humourous public persona, he meant every word he uttered about the group and held nothing but admiration for Plant.
“I would say that Led Zeppelin are the greatest, and as a rock band they deserved the kind of success they got,” Mercury once said about the four-piece. He added: “Robert Plant is one of the most original vocalists of our time. He was always my favourite singer. And he’s said nice things about me.”
According to Queen guitarist Brian May, Mercury modelled himself on Plant and tried to emulate him when he took to the stage. “He behaved as if he was Robert Plant at the time, and nobody minded him because he just had that aura about him but underneath it – no – massive insecurity, massive shyness, right to the end,” May said of his late friend.
Ever since Mercury’s death, Queen have tried and failed to replace Mercury, but nobody has come close. In 1992, they held a tribute to their late singer at Wembley Stadium, with proceeds used to launch the Mercury Phoenix Trust, which fights AIDS worldwide.
It was a star-studded event which saw the music world come together. Famously, David Bowie and Annie Lennox teamed up to duet on ‘Under Pressure’, with other guests including Roger Daltrey, Elton John, and Axl Rose.
Robert Plant was also involved in the show, and the Led Zeppelin vocalist fronted Queen for a rendition of ‘Innuendo’, which included a snippet of ‘Kashmir’, as well as ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’. However, Plant was unhappy with his performance and asked it to be omitted from the home video release, which is further conclusive evidence of Mercury’s irreplaceability.
