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Brian May has reflected on Freddie Mercury's 'very private side', admitting the late rock icon had 'massive insecurities'.

The guitar legend, 73, revealed on Absolute Radio in an interview set to air on Saturday that the superstar, who would now be 75, also suffered from 'massive shyness', in stark contrast to his public persona.

The We Will Rock You hitmaker said of his former bandmate: 'He behaved as if he was Robert Plant at the time and nobody minded because he just had that kind of aura about him but underneath it no, massive insecurities, massive shyness, it was always with him right until the end.

'He had a very private side to him Freddie and he faced up to his insecurities by building himself in the way he wanted to be.

'He's a very self-made creature is Freddie. And if you peeled of all the layers of the onion, you'd find a lot of complexity, a lot of it which he denied, which is smart I think really.'

Brian went on: 'People would say is your music important Freddie and he would say no no its just tomorrow fish n chips paper, no I don't think my songs are worth anything but underneath that yes of course he felt he had stuff to say

'Freddie was always expressing himself in rather daring ways, inside is this rather insecure person and on the outside was a warrior that he was building himself into.'

Appearing on the radio to celebrate Queen's 50th anniversary, Brian also spoke about Freddie's lesser known alter-ego, Brian explained: 'Inside is this rather insecure person and on the outside was a warrior that he was building himself into.'

The band formed in 1970 and released their first single Keep Yourself Alive in 1973, they went on to become one of the most iconic music acts in history.

Brian also spoke about how he 'spent years looking at scripts' for the 2018 movie Bohemian Rhapsody – the film adaptation of Freddie's road to superstardom with Queen.

Although the Another One Bites The Dust guitarist and his fellow original bandmate Roger Taylor 'didn't make the film', they simply tried to 'figure out how we would do Freddie justice'.

He explained: 'There’s a lot of truth in the film, we didn’t make the film, we were like the uncles of the film if you like, but we spent years looking at scripts and trying to figure out how we would do Freddie justice, without overblowing him and without sort of fantasying.'

The movie gained a total worldwide gross of $903.7M and a wealth of critical acclaim, making it the highest-grossing musical film of all-time in the world.

Rami Malek played Freddie, and received numerous accolades including a BAFTA for Best Leading Actor and an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2019.

Freddie tragically passed away in 1991 at the age of 45, from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.

The singer's famous last words in public were: 'The time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth.

'I I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease.'

Freddie died just 24 hours after issuing the statement from his Kensington home.