It re-establishes our old image in a way. It's nice to come back with something strong, something that reminds people we're a live group. I love heavy metal and I don't look down on it at all. But we're not a heavy metal group. I think you have to love something to play it. When I produced Bad News, I found that Ade Edmondson lives and breathes heavy rock music. And I love people that are so immersed in it that it's serious. I love AC/DC – what they do, it's very pure. But we're not that way, so we can't pretend we are. It's good to be able to step back and see the funny side of it, because it kicks out some of the shit. Just before we put the single out I started listening to what's on the radio, and the kind of stuff that becomes a hit these days bears no resemblance to what we do. But there are a few people out there who sit up when we do our stuff. I think the demographics are different for us. I don't think there are many thirteen year olds out there buying our records, and that age group is a large percentage of the record-buying public. I don't think we're a singles band really. People only remember the hits. It's been pretty up and down with singles. But I suppose we have done OK.
After we did the tour in 1986, which was a very big European tour, we were all absolutely exhausted and shattered and, basically, we didn't want to really work together or see each other for a while. That took a least a year to a year and a half, and then towards the end of that second year, we sort of met up and Freddie suggested, “perhaps we try a little time in the studio?” The third year was spent making the album, so in a way it was a two-year gap to us rather than three years. The first few weeks of the recording we did lot of live material, a lot of songs and ideas came up, some jamming. We had a few ideas that were already prepared. I Want It All was one of the few songs that was actually written before we went in.
The first single, I Want It All, was recorded practically live in the studio… I also have an Atari/ C-Lab setup at home now, but I find the Linn stops you getting too involved, otherwise you can spend hours shifting notes around. One section of I Want It All sounds very complex but it was done in 10 minutes on the Linn.
I'm not sure whether Freddie was a hundred per cent over the moon about this album. He was very pleased with the result but perhaps he found it a little strange to be working in partnership with the other three members again after having to please only one other person for the past two-and-a-half years. This was the first album where all the tracks were suddenly credited to the band as a whole as opposed to each separate member. Maybe this stopped some arguments and made the accountants' lives easier but in the studio things were just as fractious. As anybody in a long-term marriage knows, which is basically what the Queen partnership was, tantrums and walkouts have to happen so that people can make up, get back together again and let life be good once more. However, for the record, I can assert that Khashoggi's Ship is Freddie's. Party was, of course, Roger's [sic]. The Miracle itself was a true studio collaborative creation. I Want It All is down to Brian. Rain Must Fall is Freddie… The guitar is the giveaway where Brian's tracks are concerned. The guitar work on them is unrestrained although he was very happy to contribute what was wanted of him on all the other tracks. The band didn't change their time-honoured way of working just because the accreditation had been changed.
We were never able to perform this song live. It would've become something which was a sort of staple core of the Queen show, I'm sure, ‘cause this is very participative - it was designed for the audience to sing along and stuff, very anthemic. Interestingly, I wrote myself a little bit in the middle. I can't remember quite why that was - it's a very kind of Pete Townshend thing to do, isn't it? But it made a nice little kind of duet in the middle, a little bit of sparring between me and Freddie, and I know he enjoyed that. Interestingly, we headed into the period where we decided to share the credit for all the songs, and I Want It All - I noticed John, elsewhere in this extra section, says that I Want It All was pretty much a finished song when we went in the studio; that was true, really. It's one of these riffs that I was obsessed with for months, so I would wake up with it going through my head. And the actual title was something which was a favourite phrase of Anita's, who was later to become my wife. One of her phrases was, being very ambitious girl, “I want it all and I want it now.”
It's got that nice fast rock section in the middle, which I really enjoyed. I think people had forgotten that we could play rock ‘n' roll at that stage.
Queen anthem? Anthems are us! The I Want It All idea actually did come from my soon-to-be spouse at that time. She wasn't at the time. Anita had this phrase, “I want it all and I want it now,” that sort of summed up her ambition and drive and I just thought it was a great theme and set my mind working. I remember writing most of it while trying to get weeds out of the lawn in Los Angeles obsessively, but this… you know, sometimes things just go round in your head and you can't get rid of them, no matter what you do. So I Want It All became a sort of mantra in my head and… it's one of these things when you take it to the group, it rises to a new height and we'd made the decision for this album that we would credit everything to all of us, so it's a Queen song, which is good. It was one of the best decisions we ever made. It's nice that this song was taken up by organisations who were fighting for freedom in various parts of the world, which in a way, you know, it's part of the conception of the song. If you listen to the words, it is about the underprivileged kid trying to find a way to make his presence felt in the world. The end's interesting with Fred going “hoo-ha”. It became a sort of catch phrase in our little world.
By then, we all realised we were stronger together than apart. Still, every system has its flaws. There were moments where all of us thought we'd given too much away. If it comes up about who wrote, say, I Want It All, I'll say, “Yes, that's me.” Then I have to remember, “Oh, hang on. It says ‘Queen' in the credits.” I'm being honest, there is still a bit of that.