Editing Freddie Mercury (section)

===Other friendships===
Mercury saw the stage version of the London musical ''[[The Rocky Horror Show]]'' at the [[Royal Court Theatre]] in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], and in 1975 went to see the [[The Rocky Horror Picture Show|film version]], both of which starred [[Tim Curry]]. Curry and Mercury became friends, and as a keen horticulturalist Curry later told the UK edition of ''[[House & Garden (magazine)#UK edition|House And Garden]]'' magazine about designing Mercury's garden: "Freddie came back from a tour and said, 'The garden, dear, it's dead.' I said, 'What? Did you water it?' And Freddie said, 'Water it, dear?'"<ref>{{cite news |title=The Show Must Go On: Freddie Mercury's Favorite Films |url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/show-must-freddie-mercury-favorite-185507949.html |access-date=13 March 2023 |publisher=Yahoo |archive-date=13 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313131437/https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/show-must-freddie-mercury-favorite-185507949.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Both Mercury and Curry were also close friends with [[Peter Straker]]; Straker, who first met Mercury at a London restaurant in November 1975, was a frequent diner at Mercury's home in Garden Lodge.<ref name="Jones 2011 212">{{harvnb|Jones|2011|p=212}}</ref>

Mercury was a long-time friend of [[Elton John]]. Shortly before his own death in November 1991, Mercury ordered that a watercolour by John's favourite artist, the 19th-century English impressionist painter [[Henry Scott Tuke]], be given to John on Christmas Day. In a 2021 interview, John recalled: "Here was this beautiful man, dying from AIDS, and in his final days, he had somehow managed to find me a lovely Christmas present".<ref>{{cite news |title=Freddie Mercury's Final Christmas Gift Moved Elton John To Tears |url=https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/freddie-mercurys-final-christmas-gift-to-elton-john/207315 |access-date=26 March 2023 |work=Star Observer |archive-date=27 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327203403/https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/freddie-mercurys-final-christmas-gift-to-elton-john/207315 |url-status=live }}</ref>