Robert attended English-style boarding schools in India from the age of eight and returned to Zanzibar after secondary school. In 1964, his family fled the Zanzibar Revolution. One of Mercury’s former bandmates from the Hectics has said “the only music he listened to, and played, was Western pop music. In addition to working with Michael Jackson, Mercury and Roger Taylor sang on the title track for Billy Squier’s 1982 studio release,