Rock Candy magazine celebrates the remarkable early years of Queen with a deeply personal interview with frontman Freddie Mercury just as the band were starting to break big.

Originally printed in respected UK music paper Melody Maker and written by Caroline Coon, the interview, which features as part of a 14-page Rock Candy mag Queen special, finds Mercury in both honest and playful form.

Discussing a number of subjects including Queen’s sky-high ambitions, the stresses of touring and the band’s songwriting processes, Mercury was particularly revealing when talking about the band’s hit single "Killer Queen".

“I wrote ‘Killer Queen’ in one night,” he explained. “I’m not being conceited or anything, but it just fell into place... I scribbled down the words in the dark one Saturday night, and the next morning I got them all together and I worked all day Sunday and that was it. I’d got it. It gelled. It was great.”

Given that the interview took place over 40 years ago, Mercury is also remarkably frank with his opinions on sexuality.

“I play on the bisexual thing because it’s something else, it’s fun,” he says. “I’d be doing myself an injustice if I didn’t wear make-up because some people think it’s wrong. Even to talk about being gay used to be obnoxious and unheard of. But gone are those days. There’s a lot of freedom today and you can put yourself across any way you want to… Putting people in categories is unfair. You judge people on what they are.”

The Mercury interview is part of Rock Candy’s in-depth assessment of the band’s early years that features reappraisals of the band’s first three formative albums - Queen, Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack, live reviews and reminiscences from 1973 and 1974, exclusive interviews with those who were intimate with the band at this important time in their development and many incredible photos from the era.

As Rock Candy magazine founder Derek Oliver says, “There’s so much Queen activity right now, with the band on tour and their much-awaited film due for release, that now is the perfect time to give the unique Rock Candy treatment to an often overlooked but musically brilliant period of the band’s history.”

Read the whole of this revealing article, and many more fascinating features, in Issue 9 of Rock Candy Mag, available in shops worldwide or direct online here.