People and Their Animals Musicians
Musician · London, 1970s–1991
Freddie Mercury and His Cats
Freddie Mercury would call home from tour and ask to speak to his cats. Someone would put them on the phone.
Freddie Mercury spent much of his life performing in stadiums around the world. Back home in London, there were cats waiting for him. Over the years, he shared his life with at least ten of them, including Tom, Jerry, Tiffany, Oscar, Dorothy, Delilah, Goliath, Miko, Romeo and Lily. His personal assistant Peter Freestone later put it simply: “His cats were his family.”
- Person
- Freddie Mercury
- Animals
- At least ten cats, including Delilah
- Place
- Garden Lodge, Kensington
- Years together
- 1970s – 1991
- Known for
- Phone calls home to the cats, and a Queen song named for one of them
He called them from tour
Mercury’s life with cats began in the 1970s, when he and Mary Austin had Tom and Jerry.
Touring didn’t mean being out of touch. When Mercury called home from a hotel, he would ask about the cats and sometimes ask to speak to them. Someone at home would pick up Tom or Jerry and hold the telephone receiver near them while Freddie talked. The tradition continued with the cats who came later.
Apparently, being several countries away was not a good enough reason to miss a conversation with the cat.
Garden Lodge became their house, too
By the time Mercury moved into Garden Lodge, his home in Kensington, cats were thoroughly embedded in his daily life.
There was Oscar, a streetwise cat who would wander between Mercury’s house and Mary Austin’s nearby home. Miko preferred keeping to herself. Romeo ruled the household. Lily often lounged in the Japanese Room.
Then there was Delilah. Delilah arrived in 1986 and became Mercury’s particular favorite. Freestone recalled that although Mercury loved all of his cats, Delilah received special treatment. She slept at the foot of his bed and would run to him when the other cats bothered her.
Delilah got a Queen song
Most cats have to settle for having their names called at dinner. Delilah ended up on a Queen album.
Mercury wrote “Delilah” about her for Innuendo, released in 1991. The song describes both his affection for her and some less glamorous parts of sharing a house with a cat.
Not everyone in Queen was equally enthusiastic about recording a love song to Freddie’s cat. Roger Taylor later admitted that he hated it, but it made the album anyway.
The cats made it onto his clothes, too
Mercury’s cats also appeared in one of his final music videos.
In “These Are the Days of Our Lives,” filmed in 1991, he wore a waistcoat decorated with portraits of his own cats. The garment had been made for him as a gift, using photographs of the cats as references.
By then Mercury was seriously ill, making the appearance of his household on the waistcoat especially personal.
Home was where the cats were
Mercury gave his cats Christmas stockings filled with treats and toys. He worried when one disappeared. He had portraits made of them. His 1985 solo album Mr. Bad Guy was dedicated to Jerry, Tom, Oscar and Tiffany, followed by a message to cat lovers everywhere.
For someone whose public life was exceptionally large, his relationship with his cats was remarkably domestic: phone calls home, favorite sleeping spots, household squabbles, and one cat who apparently deserved her own song.
Freestone later wrote that Mercury knew where home was. It was where his cats were.
Life at Garden Lodge
Personal photographs from Garden Lodge show the other side of the story: Freddie at home with the cats who shared the house. Click through for the Sotheby’s feature.
Photographs from the Garden Lodge archive, shared via Sotheby’s “Feline Groovy: The Cats of Garden Lodge” (with thanks to Mary Austin and her family).
