Freddie Mercury didn't want to do Live Aid at first. He wasn't against the cause of trying to feed starving children in Africa. The issue was that Queen had not played together in a bit, and potentially playing in front of thousands would be a poor experience.
Instead, it wasn't just a few thousand people who showed up, but 100,000. If a performer was at all nervous about going out on stage, they had to learn to transpose that to pure energy. Queen had the cheat code, though, in the person of Mercury.
Guitarist Brian May recently spoke with Radio Times, and he broke down how it led up to the band being OK with doing the concert, and what went on in the show. He also pointed out that event creator Bob Geldof gave performers one direction: Don't go over 17 minutes. Queen couldn't help by do so.
Brian May breaks down why Queen went long at Live Aid
The issue wasn't that Queen didn't want to stop at 17 minutes, but that the crowd would not let them. The spectators responded effusively to everything the band tried, from doing the hand claps on "Radio Ga Ga" to swaying in unison during the finale song of "We Are the Champions."
But the reason Queen's part of the show went long was Mercury's impromptu call and response with the crowd of "ay-oh." This was not the first time Mercury had done this, of course, but it was certainly bound to be his most memorable.
May said, "We thought that might be on the cards. We just didn’t know whether he was going to feel right about it. But (Mercury) was so bold.”
Instead of 17 minutes, Queen played for 21, but there was probably little argument about someone stopping the band from going past their allotted time. It was music magic and important. It helped raise money for those less fortunate, and much of it was due to Mercury's personality and stage presence.
Perhaps the oddest part of what May told Radio Times was what the members of Queen did after visiting the royal box at Wembley Stadium and before their time to play later in the day. May took a short trip with his young children to a fair. Drummer Roger Taylor spent his time walking around Kensington and listening to everyone in their homes watching Live Aid. No word on what Mercury did.