Twenty years after being recorded, the 1983 duets between Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson are finally being released. The reason it’s taken so long? A llama.


Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury are two of the most iconic singers of the 70s and 80s. A duet released with both artists would surely be a hit. So why didn’t their 1983 recordings ever see the light of day? According to Consequence of Sound, it involved a llama in the studio. Freddie Mercury’s manager, Jim “Miami” Beach, said Michael Jackson brought the furry animal into the studio one day, and Freddie wasn’t terribly excited about it.

“They got on well except for the fact that I suddenly got a call from Freddie, saying, ‘Miami, dear, can you get on over here… You’ve got to get me out of here. I’m recording with a llama… I’ve had enough and I want to get out.”

Later on in his career, however, Freddie Mercury expressed regret, stating that “I think one of the tracks would have been on the Thriller album if I had finished it, but I missed out.”

Now, with the help of surviving Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, and producer William Orbit, the recordings have been reworked and are scheduled for release this fall.