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World Famous Music Filmmaker Remembers Friend Freddie Mercury

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – He has directed and/or produced some of the most famous music videos and documentaries in music history.

Recently, at his Miami Beach condo, Austrian born Rudi Dolezal dropped some names for CBS4's Lisa Petrillo.

"The Rolling Stones, Lionel Ritchie, Miles Davis, Queen, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Bono, U2, Nsync, so many more. In the 80's and 90s I did 250 videos a year," Dolezal said.

One of his most prized possessions is the nomination medal for the Grammy Award for the documentary he produced, "Freddie Mercury- The Untold Story", where he chronicled the life and times of the iconic singer.

"It was basically two decades that I worked with them and I did something like 30 videos for Queen and the boys and also their live concerts. Freddie called it the inner circle," he said.

Living in "the inner circle" gave Rudi an inside view to the good and bad of life at the top of the music world.

"Freddie was a very special person. He was very funny, very shy. He was a private person but on stage he was he was explosive. But at home, he was a regular guy," he said.

And then as shown in the recent blockbuster film, Bohemian Rhapsody, there were the tough times when Freddie turned to drugs.

"Were you there?" Asked Petrillo.

"Yes, I was there and I was participating. At the time, this was when cocaine was everywhere in the music business and he was drinking vodka like water. It was not a phase. It was there all time, but it became more intense. Obviously, when he had the diagnosis he stopped with everything," Rudi explained.

Rudi chooses to remember the good times working with Mercury, and he enjoyed watching the new movie.

"They took a great deal of detail work to reenact a lot of thing as it was, like choosing the right camera angles.  I think it's great for a new audience because the Queen music is just fantastic," he said.

Rudi shot what would be Freddie's last music video. Although he was very sick at the time, Rudi said Freddie never complained, he only worked harder and gave words of encouragement.

"He said for example never try to be second best. Always go for the impossible. If somebody says no, try again. The man, the human being, how he was dealing with this terrible illness, makes him even bigger than all of other stuff. To me, Freddie is still here," said Rudi.

"Freddie Mercury- The Untold Story" is online and on DVD.

Rudi says he's also writing a book on Freddie Mercury to be released next year.

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