I thought up the name Queen early on. It couldn't have been King; it doesn't have the same ring or aura as Queen.

I think Queen songs are pure escapism, like going to see a good film - after that, they can go away and say that was great, and go back to their problems. I don't want to change the world with our music. There are no hidden messages in our songs, except for some of Brian's.

I feel that the name Queen actually fitted that time. It lent itself to a lot of things, like the theatre, and it was grand. It was very pompous, with all kinds of connotations. It meant so much. It wasn't just one precise label. I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it.

I had a lot of ideas bursting to get out and there were a lot of musical territories I wanted to explore which I really couldn't do within Queen.

That was really when the Queen volcano erupted, when it suddenly just went bang!

We've gone overboard on every Queen album. But that's Queen.