Interview with Jim Hutton, from Irish Radio
November 1995
Transcription by Gary Nolan

Interviewer - I'm trying to work out your accent, I'm intrigued by the fact you won't say what county your from even because you are photographed with Freddie on the front of the book, the book is in all stores all over the country at the moment, will you even tell us the county.
Jim - That's an old photograph, I have changed.
Interviewer - No I can see I'm looking at you and I'm looking at the photograph.
Jim - The hair is blonde now.
Interviewer - And apart from a few gray hairs at the edges you still have the moustache and you still look very handsome and I can see why Freddie was struck, a very strong looking individual. But you are from Ireland.
Jim - I'm from Ireland.
Interviewer - When did you discover you were gay?
Jim - I think I actually discovered, well discovered is a very strong word to use, I felt something odd about me around the age or thirteen maybe fourteen, I suppose admitted I was gay well, maybe around just seventeen.
Interviewer - And what was it like growing up in a small Irish town realising you were so different
Jim - Well I suppose to me I was basically the only one that was like that, that was just I felling I had, I had obviously had not met anybody else, I suppose like most young people immaterial whether you are gay or not your sexuality that's something to be discovered. So its taboo.
Interviewer - And did you confide in anyone Jim?
Jim - Nobody.
Interviewer - And you went to London then.
Jim - I didn't actually go to London. I went to Kent, I had some relatives in Kent.
Interviewer - But you hadn't come out in Ireland so to speak.
Jim - Oh no, I went over on a holiday originally and ever since then I hav'nt looked back.
Interviewer - And that's when you came out.
Jim - Yes, its much easier there are bars/clubs/pubs.
Interviewer - And when did your mother discover that you were gay?
Jim - I actually think that mothers, its instinct with them, I really and truthfully do.
Interviewer - You think she knew all along?
Jim - I think she knew all along and suppose throughout the years she was waiting for me to tell her. Its waiting for an opportunity and really a lot of time that opportunity never really presents itself. There is never the right time and unfortunately we either have to hit while the iron is hot and just say bang, you know, its sand I think a lot of people not necessarily in Ireland but a lot of people I know on the gay seen like a tragedies happened in the family then they tell the family, because they are already dealing with a one shock so a second one is not so bad. Which I think is very sad they have to do that, they have to wait. Interviewer - Wait like for a funeral or something.
Jim - Yes, Never a wedding (laughs).
Interviewer - So when did you tell your mother?
Jim - A few years before Freddie died. The whole family, I mean she just said well they thought as much, my neph's & nieces I have quite a lot of them, a big Irish family, for years they suspected. Apparently they all used to discuss it when they were younger between themselves.
Interviewer - Jim is different. Did they call you Jim?
Jim - They always called me Sheamus, Uncle never Aunt.
Interviewer - And when did they discover that Uncle Sheamus Hutton was Freddie Mercury's boyfriend? Because they probably would have loved Freddie's singing.
Jim - I don't really know if they cottoned on to it, I did tell them that as far as my connection with Freddie was I was his gardener, I worked for him which I did do, as for the relationship, I don't really know, they might have suspected, but certainly when he died.
Interviewer - And does your family now accept openly that you are gay?
Jim - Oh yes, I have a wonderful, I find myself blessed with the family I've got. They really are brilliant.
Interviewer - And you travel, you come back to Ireland
Jim - Yes I spend about six months a year here roughly.
Interviewer - Talk to us about Freddie and his personality, we have this image of this incredible singer with this incredible voice. But describe Freddie�s personality for us.
Jim - Do you want the onstage one or the offstage one?
Interviewer - The one you knew as his wife or husband.
Jim - Everybody knows the onstage one, it is like anybody, I don't know how may year he was on top maybe 20 years, its like anyone who has a nine to five job, once your job is over, that's it I'm outta here, I'm going home, and that's one thing Freddie looked forward to, every time he come from holidays, he's home, you know you get home kick your shoes off just sit down and relax at your own pace.
Interviewer - Can of beer.
Jim - Bottle of Vodka, whatever took your fancy, but no he really was I suppose a run of the mill Joe Bloggs.
Interviewer - And you lived with him, how soon after meeting him did you move in his house?
Jim - It may have been something like eighteen months to two years. Which is something orchestrated beautifully as well, I used to live in rented accommodation in Surrey. I think it was one weekend when Freddie was going back to Germany, I gave him my telephone no and I started to get these phone calls at two and three and four o'clock in the morning from Germany, obviously my landlady didn�t appreciate this because she had to answer the phone so she gave me notice to quit. She said I'm fed up with the, I want you out of here in two weeks.
Interviewer - And did she know who was it on the phone?
Jim - No, no it was just his voice on the phone, another person on the phone.
Interviewer - And she's traipsing up and down the stairs and knocking.
Jim - And she wasn't a young lady at the time either.
Interviewer - So your landlady tells you its time to go.
Jim - So I let fly at Freddie over this - I mean you and your bloody phone call at this time in the morning, I've been evicted, so he said fine, you go and live in Garden Lodge.
Interviewer - Which is Freddie's house, and when he was ringing you by the way at four o'clock in the morning what was he saying to you.
Jim - I haven't a clue, I cannot remember what he was saying to me, its weird.
Interviewer - Ok so you moved in with him. And what was that like? There was obviously other staff in the house?
Jim - It's such a vast change to everything but I suppose deep down inside me no it wasn't a change. It was but it was'nt. Its very hard to try to describe it. Again I mean it was a place where I suppose like any couple that have their own place together, immaterial of who owns it or what you make a home out of it.
Interviewer - But I mean any couple living together - I mean usually both of them are contributing to the household. How did you, you were a hairdresser weren't you? Did you keep that up?
Jim - Oh yes, that's a very important part of my life. My independence, very important to me, and I think its one of the things in me Freddie admired, I think it was. He liked people to give out and say no, this is this and that's the way it is.
Interviewer - So would you have handed up money to the running of the house, would you have insisted on keeping your independence.
Jim - I think I went through a stage where yes but it was very short lived, of donating X amount of money towards food, but that was very short lived, and actually when I started working for him as with the other, Peter and Joe, well then that was all part and parcel of your job, your accommodation everything was included, so I mean you didn't feel obliged to actually, obviously you pay for your own toiletries etc.
Interviewer - We remember, Freddie�s' public image, we remember him at Live Aid in particular, fantastic set. Queen I think it was Elton John who said, what did they say, you were there afterwards when Elton John strutted across and said...
Jim - You bastard you stole it.
Interviewer - Which they did, well U2 were good on the day but Freddie really scored.
Jim - Yes, seriously it was my very first time I had been to a live concert.
Interviewer - And did people know you as Freddie�s partner, Freddie's husband?
Jim - They knew me as Jim, I was with Freddie. And that was it.
Interviewer - And people in the business knew that Freddie was gay obviously?
Jim - I never heard them discussing it with anyone. Unless there were other people in the business who were gay and they knew each other but I never heard them talking about it.
Interviewer - Were you with Freddie before he went on stage that day, I think it was about four o'clock in the afternoon?
Jim - I arrived back from the Savoy as I was working doing my hairdressing job that morning, and half day, arrived back, there was quite a few in Freddie's flat that day, they were watching television, I knew there was something big going on, but it did'nt click with me, In actual fact I knew it was Live Aid but what it was that was it, and we had been hanging around his flat and they been watching television and he eventually said to me, "are'nt you going to get ready then" and I said "for what" and he said "you�re coming to this concert today" and I said "wha!!!"
Interviewer - And did you talk to him before he ran out on stage, what was he like, was he calm beforehand?
Jim - Oh god no, a total bag of nerves.
Interviewer - Was he!
Jim - Absolute total bag of nerves.
Interviewer - Freddie Mercury was nervous before he went onstage?
Jim - I think most people are, I mean can you imagine doing this program in front a live audience of seventy two thousand people.
Interviewer - And then a million or billion around the world�
Jim - It's frightening to see that mass of faces, you never know what�s going to happen.
Interviewer - And you were standing at the side of the stage.
Jim - I was backstage, I was all over the place actually.
Interviewer - And then when Freddie came off how was he?
Jim - He was great, I think his line when he goes onstage was I'm Theirs/I'm Yours. And when he came off he just downed a large vodka and just totally flake out, literally just go crash out.
Interviewer - Lets just listen to his voice, but before we do, Barcelona with Monserrat Caballe was there a row about the tape when Freddie wasn't well when they performed that. What�s the story in the book?
Jim - No that was the Le Nit night, which was the official thing for the Barcelona Olympics and this wasn't the Barcelona song actually it was another different tracking and yes they mimed it, Freddie�s throat was'nt very well. And I think the tape was either running too fast or too slow, now that's how much of a professional he was, he could tell as soon as the tape started, the first note, he knew.
Interviewer - Was he one for losing his temper?
Jim - Oh he could lose his temper oh god yes, he was human, he was just like you or I.
Interviewer -This is Barcelona, Freddie Mercury and Monserrat Caballe, incredible voice Jim, really unbelievable.

Plays Barcelona

Interviewer - You're conducting that Jim, as if, were you there when they performed that first. What was it like?
Jim - Oh yeah, it was stunning, absolutely brilliant, it was done at the Koo Club, I think that was before the Olympic flag arrived in Barcelona, it was a pre run to the Barcelona Le Nit, and obviously myself and a few other people knew exactly what was going on, it was a big-big night in the Koo Club.
Interviewer - That's in Ibiza...
Jim - It's in Ibiza, yes, I mean just to be standing there amongst the crowd. If you knew a little secret and nobody else knew and then all of a sudden everyone knew it. And when Monseratt came out everybody just, I mean Spanish and with she being Spanish they just went WOW. When Freddie came out, I mean they both came out together, you see this, I suppose Monserrat is quite ahh..
Interviewer - Big, big�
Jim - Largest lady and the very slender Freddie. I mean it was quite a sight. But I mean just to look at and I don't mean just for sizes, probably the biggest opera star in the world and one of the better known rock stars in the world.
Interviewer - One of the better singers in the world as well Freddie was.
Jim - And to actually get those two together, two totally different worlds, but that was Freddie he never believed that music should be different. Its all the same thing, its immaterial whether you are singing rock and roll, opera any of those I think he believed that.
Interviewer - And did you meet Monserrat?
Jim - Oh gosh yes, I met her quite a few times.
Interviewer - And what's she like?
Jim - The first time I was introduced to her was when she came to Garden Lodge, I think it was to discuss making music together with Freddie, and Freddie threw a beautiful meal/dinner for her, he went out of his way to find out exactly what she would eat. It was a very private dinner. As she came into the lounge she was wearing one of her lovely gowns and she almost tripped. She just stuck her foot on him. And all you could hear was this little voice. " OOOH SHIIIT" she was one of the lads, just as jolly as anybody.
Interviewer But it was a glamorous life and I want to talk to you about that glamorous highlife with Freddie Mercury after the break.

BREAK

Interviewer - Welcome back, I'm with Jim Hutton or indeed Sheamus Hutton as he's known, originally from Ireland, but he has just published a book called Mercury and Me, his life with Freddie Mercury of Queen's fame lover. The high life Jim you were flying around from London to Geneva and...
Jim - Oh yeah, I always remember the very first time Freddie wanted me to go to Germany and I was very annoyed with him because as I say it's the independence streak in me that he actually sent his chauffeur to get me up the West End of London then to drive me back to Heathrow but also bought my ticket for me first class to Germany, I suppose I was quite chuffed but I was annoyed as well.
Interviewer - Why?
Jim - I would much prefer to pay that myself.
Interviewer - Could you have paid that yourself?
Jim - I would have probably gone to a bucket shop and got a cheap ticket.
Interviewer - In that high life did you meet all the stars, the Jaggers, the Elton John's and any of them, did you come across them?
Jim - No..
Interviewer - Freddie kept to himself really.
Jim - Freddie occasionally would have a few, I mean Elton came around a few times, Divine was another one that came around a couple of times, there were a few. But I mean as I say offstage was offstage that was it - forget the music side.
Interviewer - And what was your relationship like, Freddie had a reputation for being promiscuous is that a fair word to use, probably isn't a fair word to use?
Jim - I don't know, I mean I will be very honest. The way I look at it is, our relationship started when Freddie and I met, and that's when the relationship started not before, not what had been going on before, I probably heard what had went on before yes but we never discussed that. And I think the same applies I suppose to any happy normal relationship, you don't go backtracking on what happened before I met you.
Interviewer - But there are a couple of occasions in the book where you suspected.
Jim - Yes, he did, where he used to go out and mess me around a bit. I eventually cottoned on but it was mostly friends of mine who tell me he was messing around chatting other people up. But I don't know if it was his insecurity or the fact that I didn't show possessiveness or jealousy, that was the one thing I never showed that I never let him know I was jealous, that was one thing that he wanted to see. He wanted to see me lose my temper. And I did once, I did a few times.
Interview - And what did you say to him?
Jim - I basically gave him an ultimatum, you know its, you make your mind up what you want, you want me or you want that. I', assuming that what he actually liked to see. I suppose let him know, "don't me with me, don't mess my life up" and that was it, I suppose he wanted to feel he was wanted, I mean seriously wanted not just wanted for the sake of him being Freddie Mercury, it was insecurity I suppose.
Interviewer - And you stuck with him through thick and thin?
Jim - Yes.
Interviewer - And when did you discover he had AIDS?
Jim - I think it was probably '87.
Interviewer - How did you discover that?
Jim - It was around about Easter time, I as actually at home in Ireland, it may have been just after or before Easter. It was certainly not Easter as I didn't spend Easter at home anyway and I trekked four miles into town to get to the nearest phone to phone him up, four miles!!
Interviewer - Four miles!
Jim - Yes, this is Ireland of 1987, I hope Irish Telecom are listening.
Interview - So you traipse four miles�
Jim - �into town to phone him up and he's starts screaming at me initially because they hadn't heard from me in a week and I explained that look its an eight mile trek, four miles in and four miles back to make a bloody phone call. He hadn't realised that and he just said to me Oh when are you coming home" and I said "Tomorrow" and he said "oh good, because there is something very important I want to tell you" he didn't sound depressed on the phone or anything and I said "cant you tell me now" he said "no, I cant tell you over the phone." Which I mean I was to find out and discover the following day � I suppose I got home and we had a little cuddle and chat and then he told me, I mean a bombshell, literally Interviewer - And what did he say, did he break the full news to you?
Jim - The total news, the total, in one fell swoop. That was it.
Interviewer - I've full blown...
Jim - Yeah, I mean, I do say in the book that he was an honest guy, and he was, he was honest to me, he was honest to himself, which is more important.
Interviewer - And what went through your head when you heard?
Jim - I suppose like anybody, you automatically say "oh gosh no I don't believe this we must get second opinion" I think everyone says that with an illness you have, obviously that did go through my head and I said it to him don't be ridiculous, we will get a second opinion. And I mean forgetting for a moment as Freddie said to me "These are the best there are". You know.
Interviewer - The doctors he was going to?
Jim - The doctors he was seeing, they were the top AIDS specialists.
Interviewer - Because he had money
Jim - Of course, that's what I was going to say, you forget that he had the money to bring them in. And that was really about the last time we talked, that it was mentioned, I mean as a serious conversation.
Interviewer - And did you cry or were you upset?
Jim - O I was livid, I was in total disbelief. It took me a long time to actually say yes.
Interviewer - And then the impact on you physically because you had been sleeping with him obviously.
Jim - He actually...with that conversation he just said to me "if you want to leave me, I will understand, I won�t blame you, I won�t hold it against you" and my feelings for Freddie obviously we were living together now for a while and we were going much stronger and I just said "no, I'm not leaving, why should I" its basically my love for him that said no you don't do this.
Interviewer - Then when did you discover that you were HIV positive?
Jim - I discovered in 1990, I decided to have a test on the quiet.
Interviewer - Did Freddie encourage you to have the test?
Jim - Oh Freddie many a time said to me to go and have a test, but I said no-no, I'm ok, many a time.
Interviewer - And if I have it I don't want to know.
Jim - Well I think this is, you know...he did say that, it was left up to me in the end to go and have a test done. Which I did have very, very quiet. I didn't tell anyone about it. Interviewer - And if I remember you were in, where were you when you got the news of the�
Jim - When I got the second, the news of the second test. Freddie and I and Joe were in Switzerland. Our last trip to Switzerland before Freddie died. So it was really three maybe four weeks before Freddie died that the news of my test came through in Switzerland.
Interviewer - Do you remember that phone call?
Jim - I remember it very well. But the other thing was that I knew beforehand anyway. So I mean it was immaterial to me. I had known in 1990.
Interviewer - But this was confirmation.
Jim - This is the confirmation. You know and Freddie egged me on to phone my doctor up so I did and he said "I'm sorry, you're positive" and I said "are you sure" he said "yes" and I think you really got to, people handle it totally different. Basically I get on with life, I don't sit down and mope, and think about it, I haven't got time for that. Interviewer - And how is your health now?
Jim - Fine, I have had time to sit down and think, oh I've got to headache or whatever, I get on with life.
Interviewer - You sat with Freddie as he died.
Jim - Sure, I'm sure there are many a person have sat with their parents when they dying, its I don't think there is much difference in that with a parent who is dying or a loved one.
Interviewer - I want to talk to you about being with Freddie as he died with great dignity but we will do it after this.

Ad Break.

Interviewer - Welcome back, I'm with Jim Hutton or indeed Sheamus Hutton as he's known, born in Ireland but moved to London when he was about seventeen and has just published a book called Mercury and Me, I might as well give the details now, its �14.99 and its published by Bloomsbury and it's the story of Jim's life with Freddie as man and wife, as lovers for seven years. How soon before Freddie died was he very ill, Jim, because he seemed to be very healthy almost to the very end.
Jim - I suppose it really hit me that he was ill around about his birthday which was the 5th of September, when he came down for his early cup of tea, but then again we went off to Switzerland for a ten/fourteen day break, yeah about a month.
Interviewer - But he was losing weight.
Jim - Yes he was losing weight, but he was still flying around Switzerland, not talking about driving everywhere, get out of the car and go for a little walk along the lake. Interviewer - And was he interested in trying all the various cures, he was on AZT at one stage?
Jim - He was on AZT for a period but, I think he became a bit of a guinea-pig for certain drugs but what they were I don't know, as I was unfortunately I didn't medicate Freddie, that was all left up to Peter and Joe, they are the ones that really took him in hand. Interviewer - Staff members in the house.
Jim - Yes, and I think that they did try out trial drugs on him.
Interviewer - Those last few weeks as Freddie lay in bed seemed to be very traumatic, in terms of he needed a lot of care.
Jim - Well not to the degree that the press was making out, I mean a lot of the stuff in the press was just hype, they never bothered to ask anyone what was happening or anything, I mean you are up against a blank wall in situations like that. But ahem no, one of the things Freddie said to his doctors when he was diagnosed was "look when it comes a time for me to go I want to go with dignity, I don't want you guys prodding needles into me and keeping me going" and that was what he did do. I think at the end Freddie made his mind up when we were in Switzerland, I actually say that's why we wanted to go to Switzerland, make his mind up, do I continue with all these drugs, or don't i. And I firmly believe that in Switzerland he said "no, this is it". Because when he did come back from Switzerland I mean it was about three weeks, he deteriorated rapidly, I was actually to discover via Joe that he had come off all his medication except painkillers. And to do something like that must have taken a lot of courage.
Interviewer - And he died in November this month, was it November 24th, three years ago? Do you remember the moment he died?
Jim - The precise moment you can never tell, I don't think you can tell anyway, but yes the seconds ticking up to it.
Interviewer - And was he conscious or...
Jim - The day before, that was a Sunday, he was in what they call I think a conscious coma.
Interviewer - In and out and...
Jim - Well no it was one where you are aware, he was aware of what was going on all around him but yet could not communicate with us, awake. And that evening we went to change the bedclothes etc and what about twelve minutes to seven and as we changed his, I changed his underwear etc., I just looked down and�I said to Peter "he's gone" it was just (clicks his fingers)
Interviewer - He'd slipped away.

Jim - I think he'd gone the way he wanted to go. With his favourite cat on the bed as well.
Interviewer - And this photograph in the book, because you� the last posed photograph of Freddie you actually took.
Jim - Yes that was when, before they made the video of These are the days of our lives.
Interviewer - Now he looks quite frail.
Jim - He had shaved his beard off, everything for the days of our lives.
Interviewer - And then of course once Freddie died the papers went berserk.
Jim - Well then you know, Field Day, well they went berserk for three weeks before he died. I mean you couldn't move going into Garden Lodge, without hitting a barrage of press. Seriously it was horrendous. And it was a barrage of press they blocked the whole road, everything.
Interviewer - Because Freddie had been quite public about having AIDS.
Jim - Well�
Interviewer - In the sense that he didn't hide the fact.
Jim - He didn't hide the fact that he had AIDS, but then again he didn't openly admit it, no not until 24 hours before he died. But then that was a rushed statement which I said in my book that he was coerced into releasing.
Interviewer - Oh yeah?
Jim - Yes I've got my own reasons why but I wont say what but a lot of things were happening world-wide.
Interviewer - Because it was world news when Freddie died.
Jim - You had the Magic Johnston came out, around the same period of time all of this. But there are other reasons why I think, my reasons for thinking it is if Freddie had wanted to release that statement he would have done it a long time ago he wouldn't have waited till the last.
Interviewer - And what was that like for you, you were losing a husband, a lover? Jim - I had lost everything, literally everything. And I was to learn weeks later even our home.
Interviewer - Because?
Jim - Well we were politely asked to leave by the executors
Interviewer - ..of the will, and he left most of his money to Mary Austin Jim - He had made a promise to Mary many years ago, and Freddie was one of these people that...
Interviewer - Explain to our listeners who Mary Austin is because people never�
Jim - Mary is...she had a relationship, she had a fling with Freddie, oh crikey, in the seventies, which lasted I don't know how long, I really don't know much on that, only what I read in the papers. She up to his death worked for Freddie as a company secretary. She, well people say Why, Freddie trusted Mary, I think she was the one person he really and truly trusted. And he made a promise to her many years ago, long before I came on the seen that she would have the best part of his estate. And what I'm trying to say is that if Freddie, he was one of these type of people that if he made a promise, he would go out of his way to make sure that promise was kept, that he carried that promise through, so basically he was saying that you don't need to write that down.
Interviewer - You now Jim are grieving, you have lost somebody you have obviously been very deeply in love with and vice-versa, and they you have to leave the home were...
Jim - Everything, well it wasn't just me it was Joe and Peter also.
Interviewer - And were you locked out, literally locked out?
Jim - No, we were given a date to leave. I think I was the last one to leave Garden Lodge.
Interviewer - And what did Freddie leave you in his will?
Jim - In his will Freddie left me financially, he left me well off financially and that is it.
Interview - He left you - what did you say in the book?
Jim - He left me half a million pounds.
Interviewer - Half a million pounds.
Jim - But Freddie according to friends left the same amount to myself Peter and Joe so that we would never have to work again. Basically I suppose emphasising that they won't have to buy properties either. That his wishes would be kept, hoping he believed his wishes would be carried out. His verbal wishes.
Interviewer - Which were?
Jim - Which were that myself, Joe and Peter would stay in Garden Lodge as long as we wanted.
Interviewer - Oh I know what you mean, so you are being very strong in the sense that you should still be there and...
Jim - Well yes and no, I do believe I suppose in many ways it was good that we were asked to leave but I think that it would have been much nicer that they said in your own time go. Instead of putting a final date to it, you know. It was good in many ways because I mean it made us get out and pick our own lives again, so there was a positive side to it, the negative sides was we as I say were literally kicked out of our own home. We weren't, it was one tragedy on top of another. You know instead of giving you time to grieve over what's happening, to get your life rolling again.
Interviewer - So do you think about death, because you HIV and all?
Jim - I think everybody does at one stage or another. Well I mean I could walk out of here and get knocked down by a bus.
Interviewer - But I'm saying, you knows your are saying its important, Freddie had you and he had other people around the house obviously, have you somebody, I mean will you come back to Ireland.
Jim - No I don't think so, I suppose it would be bad enough my family knowing that I had developed full blown AIDS, it would be bad enough having my family to cope with that so why put the other pressure on with my being there., also knowing, I don't know what the medical facilities in Ireland are like. I mean in a years time�
Interviewer - They are as good as anywhere I think at this stage.
Jim - They probably are, I mean in some cases much better. But I've also got my backup doctors here, they have been looking after me all these years.
Interviewer - You sound as if you have been cheated out of, you know�
Jim - Out of life.
Interviewer - No, not out of life necessarily, but out of the, after Freddie and the house and...
Jim - No we were not cheated, we don't feel cheated it that way, as regards feeling cheated, I mean we were basically, the way we felt that we were being dismissed, we didn't exist anymore, you know once the deed was done those three people didn't exist and they were never here.
Interviewer - And is that one of the reasons you wrote the book?
Jim - No, I've written the book as I suppose a grieving process for myself. I mean it has taken time to write the book, and I suppose in many ways the only thing I probably think about is that I shouldn't have written it so quick, its wasn't written quickly. Because since the book has come out there are a lot of other things that have come out.
Interviewer - Sure you are talking a lot more now.
Jim - You know this is where the book has helped me, this is the reason, also I suppose to say well look this didn't happen and that this did happen.
Interviewer - To put the record straight?
Jim - To put the record straight.
Interviewer - Also in terms of you being openly and acknowledged as Freddie's, this is the life as the way he chose.
Jim - That wasn't the actual issue of writing the book, I suppose friends in the gay world knew who I was anyway.
Interviewer - You say, by the way as a complete, I don't know where this is after coming into my head, you talked once about snoring and Freddie gave out to you because you snored.
Jim - Oh yes, knocked me out of bed once.
Interviewer - Because you snored? Jim - Yes.
Interviewer - And were they happy years?
Jim - They were, yes they were, yes.
Interviewer - Did you go to the concert afterwards, I remember in memory of Freddie?
Jim - The Freddie Mercury Memorial Concert, oh yes I was there...
Interviewer - And what did you think of that?
Jim - I was amongst the crowds, I suppose at he time I was still checking "where's Freddie". I think a lot of people were doing that that day.
Interviewer - Do you remember David Bowie going down on...
Jim - I remember David kneeled down and saying the Lord�s prayer as we call it, oh yes.
Interviewer - That was powerful.
Jim - It was powerful but there again you see I do know that some of the press over here say like "how dare he" how dare the go down (slight radio interference)...Freddie praying at nighttime before he goes to bed, before he goes to sleep. Oh yes.
Interviewer - And what does he say?
Jim - I dunno, whispering, I'd go to bed at night and I'd hear this whispering. And I'd say what are you doing (radio interference again)
Interviewer - People wouldn't have imagined.
Jim - Well why not, come on.
Interviewer - Did you ever help him write songs, I know there was one song he wrote in the bath and he wrote songs to his cat, crazy little thing called love I think was written in the bath?
Jim - That was way before my time. No Delilah wasn't written in the bath that was in Switzerland, but as regards helping him write songs, not actually sitting down and, he'd come along to any of us in the house and say come on now I'm writing a song, throw a line at us, and if it didn't sound right to him he'd say, "throw some words at me" Interviewer - Talk to me
Jim - Talk to me, and things like that. So that was it as regards to helping him write. Interviewer - So did you ever realise this when you were what 12 or 13 walking around a small Irish town that one day you would be the lover of one of the most famous men in the world?
Jim - Oh God no, President of Ireland yes. (Laughs)
Interviewer - A more realistic ambition, you are in good health now?
Jim - At the moment I am.
Interviewer - And continued good health, we will play out now with Freddie voice again "Those were the days of our lives" Were they?
Jim - Of course they were.
Interviewer - How do you look back on the time?
Jim - I will never relive it, that is the way I look back on it and just go forward now.
Interviewer - Sheamus Hutton, thanks for joining us and best of luck with the book.
Jim - Thank you.

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