John was close friends with the lead singer of Queen, who died of bronchial pneumonia brought on by AIDS in 1991. John said he was still grieving on Christmas Day after Mercury's death in November when a friend brought him a package. "I opened it up, and inside was a painting by one of my favorite artists, the British painter Henry Scott Tuke," John wrote. "And there was a note from Freddie... Here was this beautiful man, dying from AIDS, and in his final days, he had somehow managed to find me a lovely Christmas present."
