The Show Must Go On

When the Night Comes

November 31st 1996

i decided it was best for me to wait a couple of days for my lawyers to process the paperwork to get the house that was rightfully mine, i ended up buying Mary a wondering house with her two boys and new husband. Everything was finally going as planned Jim was forgiven for stepping me out of the will, my mother was finally happy with her marriage and my brother. i was so happy that the minute i got back i was told by my agents that "TIME" magazine wanted me on their October issue and just in time for my birthday too, so much was happening this year.My career was soaring and i was not planning on stopping anytime soon, they wanted to hear my side of the story, to have a chance to sit down and tell my story finally this was my peaceful ending.

In her first-ever in-depth interview, Freddie Mercury's daughter discusses her father's pain and finding peace after sudden passing and heartache

Vanessa Mercury is staring at a famous corpse. "That's Marilyn Monroe," she whispers, facing a wall covered with gruesome autopsy photos. "And that's JFK. You can't even find these in book." On a Thursday afternoon in late September, Vanessa is making her way through the Museum of Death, a cramped maze of formaldehyde-scented horrors on Hollywood Boulevard.But Vanessa, not far removed from the emo and goth phases of her earlier teens, seems to find it all somehow soothing. This is her ninth visit. "It's awesome," she had said on the way over. "They have a real electric chair and a real head!"

Vanessa Mercury turns 33 next month in October on the 31st "i'm an October baby" she giggles. And moment by moment, can come across as much older or much younger, having lived a life that's veered between sheltered and agonizingly exposed. She is a pure adult of the 20th century, with her mashed-up hippie-punk fashion sense (today she's wearing a coca-cola red sequin tang top white pants and ruby red stilettos shoes) "i look younger than i seem, but i feel like i'm 77 honestly" and boundary-free musical tastes (she's decorated her shirts on tour with lyrics by Mötley Crüe and Ozzy Osborne); is obsessed with Alice Cooper – she calls him "pretty cute" – and the singer-songwriter Axel Rose; loves Nirvana and Will Smith too). But she is, even more so, her father's child. "Basically, as a person, she is who her dad is," says her younger brother (different fathers), Frank Jr. Wills. "The only thing that's different would be her age and her gender." Vanessa is similar to Freddie, he adds, "in all of her strengths, and almost all of her weaknesses as well. She's very passionate. She is very emotional to the point where she can let emotion cloud her judgment." Vanessa has, with impressive speed, acquired more than 50 talents, nine of them are required to be very flexible in the chords and the ballroom, just like her dad, Freddie Mercury who died when she was 27 years old.