Tributes pour in as music industry icon dies at 78

Extra.ie​

23-04-2025

Roy Thomas Baker, producer of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody', has died aged 78.
He died at his home in Arizona on April 12, though his family have only just announced the news. No cause of death was given.
Born in London, 1946, Baker began working in recording studios at 14. He worked as an apprentice engineer at Decca Studios, which witnessed then-budding star David Bowie, the beginnings of Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, The Who and other greats of the era.
He would later work at Trident Studios, where he would collaborate with Queen on their 1973 debut. Baker went on to co-produce the rock icons' albums Queen II , Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera , which featured 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
''Bohemian Rhapsody' was totally insane, but we enjoyed every minute of it,' Baker said in a 1999 interview. 'It was basically a joke, but a successful joke.'
'The middle part started off being just a couple of seconds, but Freddie kept coming in with more 'Galileos' and we kept on adding to the opera section, and it just got bigger and bigger,' he added.
Queen would produce A Day at the Races and News of the World themselves, bringing Baker back to work on their 1978 record Jazz .
Outside of his work with Queen, Baker would produce albums for artists like Journey, Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Darkness, Foreigner and many more.
He would also produce The Cars' first four records; The Cars , Candy-O , Panorama and Shake It Up .
'Roy taught me a lot about handling band personalities,' The Cars' Ric Ocasek said in 2016. 'He was an electronics whiz, a sound guy with a classical background for mic-ing the room's sound.'
'He got harmony,' he continued. 'And he took things in stride – a very upbeat, elegant man. Spontaneous too.'