The reason David Bowie said the Lord's Prayer at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert

12 June 2026, 13:28 | Updated: 16 June 2026, 12:15

David Bowie dropped to his knees and stunned the world.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was the most perfect celebration of the remarkable life and work of the Queen frontman.

It took place at Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992 in honour of Freddie Mercury, who had died five months earlier of an AIDS-related illness aged just 45.

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Wembley Stadium was the only venue that felt right. Not only had Queen stolen the show there at Live Aid in 1985, they had sold out two dates their on their own headline show a year later.

And the lineup was perfectly judged. A few hard rocking bands set the scene (Metallica, Extreme, Def Leppard and Guns N' Roses), while Spinal Tap provided the humour and Bob Geldof the nod to Live Aid.

Via video link, U2 added some superstar power and Mango Groove were evidence of the band's global reach, but the main attraction was the surviving members of Queen playing an absolutely epic set featuring a host of special guests.

George Michael singing 'Somebody To Love' was an obvious highlight, while Axl Rose and Elton John guesting on 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was certainly memorable, but most interesting of all was the presence of David Bowie.

Queen, Elton John & Axl Rose - Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert)

Bowie had been on a been in the middle of something of a commercial dip around the time of the Freddie tribute concert.

He had been on a three album run of relative disappointment (his own Never Let Me Down, and Tin Machine's two albums), albeit with his nostalgic Sound + Vision tour in the middle of that/

But he was still nevertheless a major draw. One of the few artists in the world with the same level of critical acclaim, commercial success and pure star quality as Freddie himself.

Bowie was also, like Freddie, a Live Aid standout, and had of course duetted with Queen on the all-conquering 'Under Pressure' single in 1981.

Queen David Bowie, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson - Heroes (Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert)

And it was 'Under Pressure' that he opened his appearance with, with Annie Lennox stepping in to provide the vocals originally recorded by Mercury.

He then joined forces with old buddy Mick Ronson, Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter and Def Leppard's Phil Collen and Joe Elliott for 'All The Young Dudes', before a run through "Heroes" with Ronno, who was himself pretty ill with liver cancer at the time.

As well as being a beautiful performance that was doing Freddie proud, it certainly wasn't going to harm Bowie's 1990s reputation in front of the 70,000 people in attendance and billion-strong TV audience.

Then came a startling moment when David Bowie dropped to his knees and said... The Lord's Prayer. The crowd in the stadium and at home were stunned into silence.

David Bowie The Lord’s Prayer, /Freddie Mercury tribute concert Wembley 1992.

It seemed incredibly out of place. Sure, Freddie wrote the song 'Jesus' for the Queen I album. Yes, he went to an Anglican school (St Peter's) in Zanzibar

But not only was Freddie was born and raised Zoroastrian, he simply wasn't a big fan of organised religion.

Freddie's personal assistant Peter 'Phoebe' Freestone told fans in 2013: "He didn’t practice any religion. He never went to church or a temple in the 12 years I was working for him.

"That is not to say he did not have his own beliefs. He did not like the idea of organised religion where one person can tell millions what is right and what is wrong. He firmly believed we are all individuals and should do what is right for us."

And the religious references in Bowie's work - 'Station to Station' ("one magical movement / From Kether to Malkuth") and 'Word on a Wing' ("Lord, I kneel and offer you' My word on a wing") - were always a bit more quirky and kabbalistic than something as trad as The Lord's Prayer.

Word on a Wing (2016 Remaster)

More to the point, praying in public just wasn't (and still isn't) the done thing at a rock concert. Even/especially a tribute show.

It was the following year that Bowie explained exactly what was going through his mind, after he was quizzed about it by Tony Parsons for Arena.

"I decided to do it about five minutes before I went on stage," Bowie said. "[Bowie's personal assistant] Coco [Schwab] and I had a friend called Craig who was dying of AIDS.

"He was just dropping into a coma that day. And just before I went on stage something just told me to say the Lord’s Prayer. The great irony is that he died two days after the show."

Queen: 1992 - The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (Episode 40)

He continued: "In rock music, especially in the performance arena, there is no room for prayer, but I think that so many of the songs people write are prayers.

"A lot of my songs seem to be prayers for unity within myself. On a personal level, I have an undying belief in God’s existence. For me it is unquestionable.

"Looking at what I have done in my life, in retrospect so much of what I thought was adventurism was searching for my tenuous connection with God.

"I was always investigating, always looking into why religions worked and what it was people found in them."