Freddie Mercury refused to work with Michael Jackson after awkward pet llama incident

Freddie Mercury refused to work with Michael Jackson as he took "umbrage" after the King of Pop brought his pet llama into the studio, bassist Jo Burt has revealed.

When Queen went into hiatus in 1983, Freddie turned to his friend - who had released Thriller the previous year - and they collaborated on three tracks at Michael's home studio in Encino, California.

But none of their duets - Victory, State of Shock and There Must Be More to Life Than This - were completed to form Freddie's debut solo album, Mr. Bad Guy, which came out on April 29, 1985.

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Musician Jo, who played the bass on Freddie's album, revealed that the King of Pop's llama, Louie, was to blame.

Speaking to the New York Post on the 40th anniversary of the album release, Jo, 69, said, "I think the last straw was when Michael brought his pet llama into the studio. I think Freddie sort of took umbrage to that."

Shocked, Freddie called Jim "Miami" Beach to escape from the studio, the Queen manager recalled in the 2012 documentary Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender.

Jim said, "Mercury rang me and said, 'Miami, dear, can you get over here? You've got to get me out of here, I'm recording with a llama.'"

The King of Pop, who died in June 2009, had many exotic pets including a chimp named Bubbles, an elephant called Ali and tigers Thriller and Sabu.

After the incident with Michael, Freddie went on to release a solo version of There Must Be More to Life Than This on his album while Michael recorded State of Shock with Mick Jagger.

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He then released more albums with Queen and appeared at Live Aid before dying of AIDS in 1991.

Reinhold Mack, who produced Mr. Bad Guy, said the album was a way for Freddie to enjoy creative freedom, as he explained, "He just did something he liked from the bottom of his heart … what he wanted it to be, without being talked into maybe a bit more guitars, or a bit more of this or more that. It was just like, 'This is it, this is how I want it.'"

Freddie wasn't the only celebrity who had an interesting encounter with Michael's pets, as in 2022 Brooke Shields revealed that while she liked chimps, Bubbles wasn't a fan of her.

Talking to Yahoo Entertainment, the 59-year-old actress, who was a close friend of Michael's, said, "You know what, Bubbles didn't really like me. I'm not quite sure why. But I didn't get to spend, really, almost any time with Bubbles."