#gardenlodge

Jim: we can't have another cat

Freddie: why not???

Jim: because we already have 9. It's starting to get overwhelming

Freddie: but I saw this cute white kitten at the shop today!

Jim: that's too bad, Freddie. We can't get it.

Freddie: fine...

*a kitten he's hiding in his jacket* : *meow*

Jim: what was that?

Dear Freddie Mercury,

With hair as black as night and eyes as brown and tempting as the sweetest chocolate.

The voice of the angels with a little bit of mischief blended in.

Shoulders that helped you stand tall and show the confidence you had.

A chest that you displayed proudly and that helped you be heard by all.

Legs that went on for days and never stopped taunting us whether covered or not.

A body so naturally musical you moved to any beat on pure instinct-a human metronome.

Feet that moved with the grace of a swan, that many have tried but never achieved.

Arms that made anyone do what you wanted without hesitation even once for a short time controlling the entire world.

Charisma that exploded from your body like the brightest sunlight.

Energy that could power a thousand cities.

Stamina that could only have come from the gods.

Sex appeal that proved you could give us grounds for divorce and sell us your body which was some good merchandise!

A smile that lit a room brighter than any bulb.

A laugh that soothed our souls with every second it lasted.

The artistic mind of a genius that never stopped creating songs that changed the world.

A heart that was completely possessed by love and although wounded never gave up on finding that perfect somebody to love.

The wit that gave us the most unforgettable quotes that are still as endearing today as they ever were.

“I’m just a musical prostitute, my dear.”

The talent for writing and playing and singing and entertaining that,no one but you, could channel so well.

The love for life that taught us all to make ours fabulous.

The example you gave us of how life should be lived in excess in all directions.

The courage of a gladiator afraid of nothing.

The work you put in every single performance, song, or rhapsody; striving for, and nearly achieving perfection.

The mere 20 minutes that made you immortal and showed the world your true awe-inspiring talent that had all past critics running scared and from that day forward unable to deny your most high place in music.

The last words to your fans telling us you will always love us, that we knew you truly meant.

That even when deathly ill never losing an ounce of dignity even singing the perfect eulogy and your unwavering belief that the show must go on. You faced it with a grin and you never gave in.

These and tons more traits make up the man, the myth, and ultimately the legend that is you, Freddie.

Freddie Mercury who was and remains, truly great and undoubtedly the stuff of legend.

When someone truly great leaves this world it’s forever a little bit darker. A man who gave the world so much in a short 45 years that a dozen people couldn’t give in 100.

If Elvis is the king of rock then Freddie, my darling, you are the King of Music.

Remembering you is easy we do it everyday but missing you is a heartache that never goes away.

We grieve even so long after you’ve been gone, not because we knew you but because you helped us learn to know and love ourselves.

They say legends never die and you will forever live in the hearts of many generations as long as music can be heard.

Thank you, for making us laugh, and cry and feel like we could fly!

Your mere existence made the world a spectacular place and then add all the things above and you have the very definition of immortality. A quality that very few people in the history of the world earned,!much less deserved, and you wore it proudly and humbly, almost as if wearing a crown.

To quote another legend named Paul, “King Mercury” forever May he reign.

Love,

Freddie Mercury, an immigrant boy from Zanzibar who had arguably one of the best singing voices ever just naturally like it belonged there as much as the blood in his veins. He could write #1 worldwide hits in less than an hour and if he took longer, would write what some in the music business have called the greatest rock song of all time. Had an ear for music that is so finely honed he can hear a song once, sit at a piano and play it and most likely even improve upon it. Who only had piano lessons for just a few years in school as a kid, and sang in the school choir at 7 and never again had any training in music or anything that it entails, yet sang better than the most trained vocalist ever. Who had one of the most exotic, recognizable, and in my opinion, sexiest looks along with the charisma of a thousand stars in one man. He could play genius melodies on a piano and secretly played insanely unique and awesome rhythm guitar. He had the talent of at least ten of the best musicians the world could produce, and was generous and funny, and just an all around good person and could control an audience of hundreds of thousands with absolutely no effort who were all in sync better than the back ups in a Jane Fonda work out video, with merely one finger. Who even though was very particular and perfectionist about his music worked so hard that not one person who ever made music with him left feeling he wasn’t the best. Who didn’t know the meaning of the word moderation and lived a life filled with more fun in just 45 years than most humans that live to be 100. Would give interviews with some of the most perfect answers just off the top of his head that are still quoted by many almost 30 years after his death. Who was the most generous celebrity ever, and was loved by most of his contemporaries even when they wanted to be jealous of him. Who sang opera that he WROTE, with one of the best opera singers that has ever breathed air, and had her in awe of his ability while fighting an unknown, excruciatingly painful, and deadly disease. A pairing that came about from one short interview in the diva’s home country and started a enormous and lasting trend of rock musicians singing opera and trying to copy the success that he created on a whim, and all others have failed to live up to miserably. A man whose instinctual movements to the music that poured out of his very soul from every pore, were so graceful, odd, and completely unplanned and awesome that it made him one of the best entertainers that ever stepped onto a stage. Who found true love even with every single obstacle stacked against it and managed to have a relationship that though not perfect was so beautiful no fairy tale could match it. Who never slept alone a day in his life and even when penniless lived like the greatest star that ever lived. Who even though a small man, who weighed nothing and wasn’t extremely tall, managed to be appealing to both men and women and personified the word sexy. Who never once in his entire life lost the beat of, both a life lived completely fully every day, or the timeless and completely inspired music he created with absolutely no effort. Who was so naturally gifted that it’s hard to believe he was actually human. A man that had a long and successful career but only took one 20 minute performance to become the most legendary performer in more than a century, all while sick with a throat infection which he refused to let stop his performance of some of rock’s hardest songs ever sung. Who when he shared a stage with the most popular and beloved artists ever and with no lights or costumes, made them all look like amateurs. Who 60 percent of 1.6 billion people voted as the most iconic and great live music performance that has ever been. Who many people believe is one of the greatest singers and frontman that did and will ever exist. When he died the grief never stopped or wanrd in intensity. Who set records in music,and then over 25 years later set a movie industry record with over 900 million dollars spent to see a biopic about his life.

Brian May, not only can use his fingers to make sounds on a guitar that a guitar shouldn’t be able to make, but was so determined to learn guitar he and his father built one from left over fireplace parts. As a child, learned and studied astronomy and physics well enough to get his masters in the subjects and later a doctorate. Has the most recognizable hair of any rock and roll musician ever naturally growing from his head, and while attaining all this education, mastered the art of guitar playing at the same time. Who has a singing voice good enough to front his own band but finds the perfect band mates by complete coincidence and become sone of the best guitar players ever and played in one of the biggest rock bands ever and be a genuinely nice and kind person as well. Taught school while his band was still finding their fame and even at 70 is still one of the coolest and most recognizable musicians on the planet. Who plays the same guitar over half a century later that he built with his dad from fireplace parts and which no one can ever completely replicate and is still the most legendary guitar in music history and he still plays all over the world and who no one has ever been able to compete with that cost less than 50 British pounds to construct.

Roger Taylor, with his baby blue eyes and long blonde hair who was too pretty to be a guy and can play drums with the best ever. He can sing in perfect range to be in harmony with his amazingly gifted lead singer while drumming at break neck speed. Who was the one who met Freddie first and introduced him to his band mate and friend Brian May and cemented one of the greatest music destinies ever. Who got more women than Casanova and could play drums and sing perfectly even when still drunk or hungover. Who has a bit of an ego, but is also humble and kind to fans. Who is the soul mate of one of the best singers that rock ever knew. Not only did they understand each other’s souls but their voices complemented each other so well only the angels in heaven could harmonize better. He could lead sing in and did, lead his own band where he played guitar yet another talent he possesses in spades. Who was made to be a rock star from the minute he decide he wanted to be. A man who could with very little time be certified as a dentist and studied biology with remarkable grades finishing his degree even though he knew he didn’t have to.

John Deacon, a man who is the definition of the word winning, in human form. A guy who on the outside seemed regular and average but was actually one of the most extraordinary musicians that ever picked up an instrument. A human disco ball who not only played bass guitar better than probably anyone but did it while dancing and writing some of the biggest selling songs of his legendary band without being able to even sing. A man who found himself near a dumpster one day and took scraps and built a custom made amp that would define the sound of his band, an amp that he himself invented and no one has been able to exactly duplicate even now. A man who got married young to the only woman he wanted and then had six children while touring and playing with one of the biggest most popular bands in history. Who can do math so well,he did, and still does, the financial business of the multimillion dollar business that his band became. A man so amazing he just left the entire music industry forever without one regret after losing the lead singer, best friend and surrogate big brother from a heart breaking disease because it just wasn’t worth it without him. A man who’s baselines are so epic and well played that his skill is hard for anyone to imitate. He was told as a prank by his fellow band mate he would need a double bass for a song and went home and learned how to play it in a matter of hours. Played not only the bass guitar with unbelievable skill and precision but any instrument. He wrote some of the most famous songs in rock that are universally loved even now more than 25 years later. He had so much integrity that even after doing the lion’s share of the writing of a song insisted his band mate who would sing the songs, take writing credits even when that singer didn’t really want to. Who was the very definition of loyalty to a lost friend who he saw as irreplaceable and refused to continue playing music without him while the others carried on. He seemed quiet, shy and unassuming but when he wanted to do something didn’t care what ANYONE thought including his band mates even during one recording session for an album picked up his stuff and went to Bali with his family on a whim leaving only a small note behind. Who came up with one of the most recognizable bass lines ever in an impromptu jam session with another artist, went out for pizza with his band mates and completely forgot said bass line then when reminded made the bass line so legendary it’s immediately recognizable from the first four notes. He wrote a song that Michael Jackson the king of pop pestered the other members to release it as a single when they were completely against it and after the single debuted became one of the best selling singles of his multi million album selling band. Who has mastered the art of being a hermit yet also being one of the coolest and most extraordinary humans that ever strapped on an instrument. Who has become the best player of hide and seek that ever was and was happy leaving it behind never once looking back.

Every single one of these guys could have been unbelievable and legendary all by themselves, but chose and found three other equally god-like humans to form a band who would become the most prolific band that ever recorded music and has multi-platinum records in every country on 6 continents in the world that are still as popular and relevant today as they were when they started 50 years ago.

WHO GAVE THEM THE RIGHT to be so amazing?!Individually, they could be Greek mythical heroes as accomplished and great as Achilles or Hercules, but when put together were more epic than any Greek mythology could even imagine, and changed the world, and music forever!

I have 4,053 photos on my iPhone and 4000 of them are of or about Queen or Freddie Mercury.

-Jim didn’t know who Freddie really was until Live Aid. To him it was a sexy guy from a bar who sang.

-Jim saw Garden Lodge it wasn’t a secret how much money Freddie had. So a gold digger would move right on in.

-He kept an apartment of his own for months while they were dating and if Freddie got up to his tricks as he had with other lovers, Jim had it to go back to. A gold digger wouldn’t keep an apartment if he wasn’t being treated well, he would ignore the behavior and continue sucking money.

-Jim kept his job as a hairdresser when the man he’d been dating seriously for several months could easily afford to “keep” him. A gold digger would stop working and live off his lover much like a lot Freddie’s past lovers did.

-Freddie asked him to move in and Jim hesitated. A true gold digger would jump at the chance. He would also have started flaking off at work staying with his wealthy boyfriend in Germany instead of being at a job. And have zero guilt or need to think about it. A true gold digger would be in that house in record time.

-Jim turned Freddie down cold the first time he asked and didn’t call him after their “one night stand”. After he saw all the nice things Freddie had and the influence he had over people that first night and a gold digger would be calling like crazy and trying to get the rich person’s attention, doesn’t sound to me like he was chomping at the bit to get his hands on Freddie and his money.

-Freddie to the best of his knowledge and ours was well for almost two years when he was seeing Jim. Freddie was a very good judge of character and knew when people used him though as long as he got something out of it he wouldn’t mind for a while. Does anyone really think that Jim an Irish hairdresser from a tiny town could pull the wool over the eyes of one of the worlds biggest rockstars. He’d have to be an Oscar-worthy actor or an amazing con man. Which let’s face it. That’s just fucking stupid. If you are saying that, you are calling Freddie gullible which he never was; not ever.

-when he did move into Garden Lodge he worked religiously in the garden. It wasn’t called Garden Lodge because there were a few leaves to rake it is one of the biggest pieces of land and garden in London that’s residential. Peter Freestone says repeatedly that Jim worked very hard. As does everyone else in Freddie’s life.

-Peter Freestone knew Jim before he ever knew Freddie and was happy to see Freddie with an honest kind man. Doesn’t sound much like a gold digger to me.

-Every friend or ex of Jim Hutton repeatedly defended him to other people when they would gossip or talk bad about him, so that goes to show his character was of a kind person who didn’t breed much resentment in anyone who knew him.

-All of Freddie’s friends have said that Jim was a good guy. Including Terry Giddings Freddie’s driver, Peter Freestone and the NY daughters. Freddie is dead. Jim is dead. Not one of The people that knew Freddie even up until present day have recanted their good words about Jim. They have no reason to keep up a “lie”

-Jim wasn’t interested in the house he was interested in how he was being treated. From the reaction of all the GL residents they had no clue about the money Freddie would leave them until the Will was read after Freddie died. If they did expect something I know it wasn’t as much as they actually got. Especially Jim who was constantly witnessed begging Freddie to stop buying him expensive things. Yeah, that screams gold digger. Pfft!

-Joe Fanelli did not mess around he didn’t care about hurting people’s feelings especially when it came to Freddie. If Jim had been the leech all these people say, then you can bet your ass he would have said something to him especially when Freddie was too weak or ill to defend himself.

-Jim when he did leave GL took the things Freddie had wanted him to have and he wanted a cat! I mean come on a cat doesn’t come with a trust fund ffs. The stuff he did end up with he gave to be sold to raise funds for the MPT such as the Yellow Wembley jacket. Never in his lifetime did you ever see the original lyrics to BoRhap on the auction block. Their whereabouts are still unknown I think. So they weren’t auctioned off for millions.

-Jim submitted an application for a mortgage for the land in Ireland in his own name and didn’t even use Freddie as a reference in the application. Then when he had to ask for the money, Freddie gave him way more than he had asked for. The land was small plot near his mom. A gold digger would’ve bought a farm that was worth a fortune in England. Not a house next to his mom in nowhere Ireland.

-At the bar Jim frequented while he lived with Freddie he had barely mentioned he was dating Freddie and not many believed him until after he died. Freddie was never paraded around to impress anyone or anything that Freddie bought him flaunted.

-He invited his ex boyfriend, who actually DID know who Freddie was, to a party and the fight they had was because of the cold shoulder Freddie gave Jim’s friend. Not because he didn’t buy him anything or refuse to pay attention to him.

-After a vase went missing Jim didn’t tell Freddie that it didn’t matter because he could afford it. He let the fight continue for several weeks as Jim turned the house upside down looking for it. Then finally frustrated had to wait until FREDDIE let it go.

-Jim didn’t seek any media attention and never once complained when he was replaced with Mary at events. A gold digger would want to show off and flaunt their money and their source of money.

-Phoebe was a huge protector of Freddie’s and had said he was not a fan of Paul Prenter due to the way he betrayed Freddie and how he’d seen it coming. Why then would you think that almost a decade after Jim died would he hesitate to tell people that Jim was after Freddie’s money if this was even remotely true?

-Even the other members of Queen recognized how uninterested Jim was in fame and fortune. They also liked Jim and as history has proven if someone was horrible to Freddie they wouldn’t be friends with them or if forced simply polite. They hated Paul Prenter. They really didn’t know much about Winnie and the absolutely hated Bill Reid, yet they were friends with someone who was using Freddie for his money? That doesn’t seem right. Hmm

-Jim lived with his “husband” in that house for almost seven years. It was a home that they made together and all the contributions Jim made were made by him and not bought on Freddie’s dime.

-Jim did not parade around in the expensive cars Freddie owned and when he did get his license he got a VOLVO. Not a Ferrari or Aston Martin which Freddie easily could have afforded.

-Jim was there when Freddie gave him an easy out. I mean if you know that your boyfriend had given you a deadly disease the gold digger would turn and run and ask for money to leave. Including extorting the rich person for money with the threat of the biggest secret Freddie didn’t want anyone to know getting out. Jim stayed when an gold digger would have run! Trust me that is not greed.

-If you have ever cared for anyone who was dying from a very deadly disease you will know it’s basically one of the hardest things that anyone whether they love the ill person or not, could do and it’s very hard on the caregivers. Jim was a huge help to Peter and Joe sacrificing his own comfort many times to be with him.

-Jim could have run when things got hard and asked Freddie for money which Freddie would have given. Instead, Jim watched the man he loved and lived with slowly suffer and wither from being the flamboyant sexy and unbelievably vibrant man he had fallen for, into a shell of himself. AIDS in particular is one of the worst diseases to witness anyone die of including strangers. There’s no way any amount money can make you do that to the very end.

-When Freddie died he wasn’t even that rich (in rich people terms at least) nowhere near what he would be later, and Jim obviously knew nothing about property value in London or how much things cost other than reasonable or expensive. A man out for money driven by greed would know those things. And would have mentioned being left the house n a daily basis for the entire relationship. There is not one mention of Jim ever doing that.

-Jim had just lost the person he saw everyday for seven years and less than a week after the love of his life died before he knew about any money, that he wouldn’t even have access to for a while. Will’s are extremely tricky and nothing is immediate including any money received from the Will. It has to go through a system of court proceedings. He was also devastated at losing the one person he had loved more than anything and he had lived with for almost 7 years. Every inch of that house dripped with memories and those can be either comforting or completely hard to relive. There’s are stages of grief and they take time. One week is not nearly enough to even let the death sink in. Staying and remembering is often the only comfort in those times.

-Mary let them live in the guest house one to which all except Phoebe had never lived in before and were exactly what they are, “guest”quarters. Jim was not a “guest” in Freddie’s life. Also, Guards were posted in the house with explicit instructions to let no one in to any part of the house without either being scheduled or having been granted permission. Including the garden Jim had worked so hard to maintain. What the hell could he have stolen in the garden? Have you ever gardened it’s a LOT of work in heat and snow and takes a lot of physical toil. Jim didn’t care he did the job when instead he could have just lounged around the house being waited on hand and foot. A place you live with someone you love has a lot of importance in the grieving process and it takes they say about half the amount of time that you lived there with the person for you to start to move forward. Half of seven years is 3 and a half YEARS not 1 week or 3 months. You become a widow or widower and report back if I’m wrong.

-when Freddie just died, after the shock and grief of his fans had waned a bit, about a year later, a lot of Queen was only a memory and wasn’t as beloved as they are now. They kind of went dormant. Unless you were a lifelong, die hard fan people were at least a little bit less grieving than they had when Freddie died. So the timing of this gold digger’s book is really odd.

-Jim wrote the book in 1993. Made in Heaven hadn’t come out yet and the Queen renaissance hadn’t even started gaining momentum yet. In its first printing the book didn’t even sell that well. Jim shared all profits with the publisher and Tim Whapshott as well so it wasn’t exactly a cash cow at least not in England. He went on tv for about 10 minutes promoting it and on shows in countries that had a lot more going on than finding things out about a recently dead rockstar, such as civil war in Czechoslovakia for example, so I highly doubt it was selling out in bookstores.

-Until much later close to the end of Jim’s life Freddie’s Legend status hadn’t been cemented quite yet. The band was popular but nowhere close to what they are today. Jim left all profits of the book to the hospital where he was treated for cancer. That doesn’t sound much like the actions of a gold digger.

-When George Michael died he left his boyfriend at the time very little compared to what he actually was worth but way way more than Freddie left Jim. George’s boyfriend published a tell all novel with explicit details of their love life and not one thing was held back and he did it super soon after George’s death even saying George would pay for not leaving him money. Which happened! and for a while the reputation of George Michael was poison for anyone to touch. Things have changed now but that book was as written out of spite. Jim’s was written to cope with grief.

-Jim talked about a few details of his love life with Freddie, but has everyone forgotten that Freddie himself was way more descriptive of sexual things than anything Jim even talked about. Ffs he told the press he had an insatiable sexual appetite and certainly didn’t hide the fact he had “a lot of sex” from the public.

-Yes, it’s horrible to read about the horrible affect that disease had on Freddie’s body and Jim recounted what was truly important not anything super embarrassing. So he wet the bed and he changed his shorts, big deal. That says nothing bad about Freddie! It just proves how awful and horrible the way AIDS kills and in the most painful way. That way anyone who had any doubt that it was horrible didn’t after Jim’s book. Awareness was still a hard topic to get into people’s heads in 1993. It had just started becoming a widely known disease since Magic Johnson announced his positive status in 1992.

-Jim was still upset with the situation and when that book was published, yes admittedly, he sounds a bit bitter in the end because what happened after he lost the love of his life was still a new wound.

-If Jim wanted to make “real” money he could have gone to another more well-known source to write the book and he could have gone into very explicit detail as to how Freddie Mercury was as a lover. But he treated it as respectfully as he could. Leaving it out would have left out a huge part of their relationship. That book wasn’t a enormous money maker until recently. Some of Freddie’s friends have described things about Freddie’s life in much more detail than Jim did. Also, Jim never had anything bad to say about him in any public appearances, he did for documentaries, or any time he was asked for a quote about Freddie. It would be very easy for a gold digger to divulge details that would disparage the legend of Freddie but Jim loved him and he didn’t become a multimillionaire at any point in his life so how exactly is he a gold digger?

-yes he wrote in his book about the house and how he felt it was partly his etc... but you didn’t see him hiring lawyers to take Mary to court or even consulting with one, about that. He took the knocks and tried to move on. A gold digger would fight tooth and nail to get any money they could. There are countless examples of these things

-My last point is kind of a repeat of the beginning of this long ass essay. Jim Hutton died almost a decade ago, Freddie has been gone for almost 30 years. Any gag orders or promises to keep secrets has long since expired. If Jim was truly a gold digging leech someone who knew the both of them first hand would have SAID SOMETHING! The only people who say these things are fans. Anyone who was a friend of Freddie’s has never said anything like that against Jim and all loyalties would have been lost by now. People would have cashed in on the Jim Hutton the digger story, by now. But no one has. There’s only one explanation for the reason it hasn’t happened.

IT WASN’T TRUE!