I have a friend who's almost as much of a Queen fan as I am, and he has this notion in his head that, fairly soon before Freddie's death, the band were planning on introducing a fifth member. It seems that some interview, at some point, has lodged itself in his unpredictable memory, and he now has a recollection of seeing Brian and Roger, after Freddie's death, talking about how they had been ready to introduce a new band member at an earlier point in time. Unfortunately, he can't for the life of him remember where the interview was from, exactly when it was, or who the hell they were talking about.
If it's not apparent by my tone, I am rather sceptical about all this, as I'm pretty sure I've never heard anything of the sort. Neither Google nor the QZ search function have given me any satisfactory results, so I figured I should try my luck here. If anyone could either confirm the existance of this interview, or give any substantial evidence of its impossiblility, we would both really appreciate having this puzzle solved.
Honestly, I doubt it...I've never heard or seen anything, and especially in interviews before Freddie's death, they made a point to reiterate that it was the four of them making up Queen. But maybe someone knows something I don't! It's always possible. :)
Might have heard them referring to someone like Mike Moran or Spike Edney as being the fifth member. Mike Moran was very close to Fred having helped on Mr Bad Guy (I think) and Barcelona (definitely) and also having co-written All Gods People. So that might be where this was coming from, but as an unofficial fifth member I think
There is Tim Staffell.
He was with Roger & Brian before Freddie, in a little know group called 'Smile'.
But I think the guy your refering to in Chris Smith. He was a keyboardist, who was fired before a big gig at the Albert Hall. link