According to 'Radio Times,' Brian May helped convince Mercury to perform at Live Aid in 1985

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Freddie Mercury received clear instructions from Bob Geldof ahead of Queen's Live Aid performance
"Don't get clever," Geldof told Mercury, per Radio Times
Queen's iconic performance at Live Aid took place in 1985 at Wembley Stadium in London

In a Tuesday, July 1 interview with Radio Times, Brian May recalled the iconic rock gig which took place in 1985 in front of 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium in London — and what the Queen frontman was told to do.

According to the Queen guitarist, 77, he had to persuade Mercury to perform at Live Aid.

“We weren’t touring or playing, and it seemed like a crazy idea, this talk of having 50 bands on the same bill,” May told the publication. “I said to Freddie: ‘If we wake up on the day after this Live Aid show and we haven’t been there, we’re going to be pretty sad.’ He said: ‘Oh, f--- it, we’ll do it.’”

He added: “It was one of the few moments in anyone’s life that you know you’re doing something for all the right reasons."

Before the gig, Geldof, 73, who organized Live Aid, also gave the Queen frontman advice.

“Don’t get clever,” he told him, according to May and Roger Taylor. “Just play the hits – you have 17 minutes.”

The Queen drummer, 75, also recalled the crowd's reaction during their set.

“During 'Radio Ga Ga,' it did seem that the whole stadium was in unison," said Taylor. But then I looked up during 'We Are the Champions,' and the crowd looked like a whole field of wheat swaying.”

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In an interview with Mojo Magazine in June, promoter Harvey Goldsmith discussed collaborating with Geldof on the Live Aid lineup — and convincing him to book Queen.

"Being the producer, I understood how slots work and who went where. I was also dealing with the technical side: we were doing two shows [London and Philadelphia] and had to stay strictly to time because of the satellite," he recalled.

Goldsmith then thought "the late afternoon slot the perfect act would be Queen."

"Bob said: ‘No, they’ve peaked. I don’t think they should play! I said to Bob, I really think they’ll be perfect to go on in that 5.30, 6 o’clock type slot – knowing Freddie as I did, I knew they’d really make a show of it, he recalled.

PEOPLE has reached out to Geldof for comment.