New YouTube series highlights Freddie Mercury’s debut solo album

December 5, 2025

Cover of Freddie Mercury’s ‘Mr Bad Guy’/(Hollywood Records)

Freddie Mercury’s debut solo album, Mr. Bad Guy, has just been reissued for its 40th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Mercury’s official YouTube channel has debuted the first in a three-part series dedicated to the release.

Each episode in the Mr. Bad Guy series includes clips from music videos for the album’s singles, along with excerpts from a 1985 interview Mercury gave to promote the record.

In episode 1, Freddie tells interviewer David Wigg why he decided to take a hiatus from Queen to make the record.

“It’s something in me that I wanted to do. It’s a challenge, anyway,” he says. “I wanted to write a batch of songs that came out under the name Freddie Mercury, so why not? I think the time and place is right.”

As for the tunes on the album, Mercury says, “They’re all love ballads and things to do with sadness, torture and pain.” He added, “At the same time, it’s frivolous and tongue-in-cheek. That’s basically my whole nature, I guess.”

The new Mr. Bad Guy reissue was released Friday on 180-gram translucent green vinyl featuring a 2019 mix by Queen’s longtime sound team, Justin Shirley-Smith and Joshua J. Macrae. The mix originally appeared on the Mercury box set Never Boring.