The backstage stories of Rock In Rio are full of tales about the eccentric behavior of some of the world's biggest music stars, from problems with Axl Rose to the day Freddie Mercury trashed his dressing room after being insulted.
In a recent interview with Observatório da Música , dressing room coordinator Ingrid Berger recalled the incident. “That Freddie Mercury episode was common in the 1980s and 1990s, where some artists gave us that kind of trouble. Today we don't have artists like that anymore, except for a few new ones who think they're something special, but they don't break things or cause scenes in the dressing rooms,” she commented. “Today they are more focused on physical health, organic food, and are proponents of sustainability; I think everything has changed. There are still artists with high demands, but nothing we can't fulfill.”
Mercury's "outburst" was revealed by reporter Amin Khader , who worked backstage at the festival during its early editions and accompanied the Queen backstage at the event in 1985. "I remember him arriving by helicopter. He asked who was in the backstage corridors because he wanted all that space clear. He asked for five minutes to clear the entire corridor. I went crazy. That day I had Erasmo Carlos, Elba Ramalho, Alceu Valença, Ney Matogrosso , and Queen. I arrived in the corridor and started asking everyone not to stay there. An unusual request from him, right?" he recounted in an interview with UOL in 2019.
READ ALSO: A blunder: The day Ozzy Osbourne hugged the Brazilian flag at a concert in Argentina
To get the corridor cleared, Khader had to promise a bottle of whiskey in each dressing room, even without permission to do so. "Then Freddie Mercury walked by with that superstar pose. When he passed, the Brazilian artists and band started shouting: 'faggot, faggot, faggot!'" he recalled.
The Brazilian also reportedly tried to downplay the situation and conceal the homophobic nature of the shouts. “Freddie asked what they were saying about him, and I said it was a compliment. It didn't work; he realized it was wrong, went into the dressing room, and smashed everything. He threw everything up in the air. He was furious. And I had to tidy everything up again for him. I was desperate and thought I'd lost my job, but the Medina had everything replaced, and everything was fine. I'll never forget that,” he concluded.
UPDATE (November 14, 2021, at 10:33 AM): As with all stories told about the behind-the-scenes of rock n' roll, there are different versions of the events narrated by Amin Khader, who has recounted the same night differently on other occasions. See below two interviews with the journalist about the case.
