Washington, Dec 19 : Queen's band member Brian May has revealed that he didn't know bandmate Mercury was gay because the latter had many girlfriends.

Although the guitarist was very close to Mercury, he had no idea that his bandmate was homosexual.

"No, I didn''t know. I don''t think even he was fully cognisant in the beginning," Contactmusic quoted May, as saying.

"You''re talking to someone who shared rooms with Fred on the first couple of tours, so I knew him pretty well. I knew a lot of his girlfriends and he certainly didn''t have boyfriends, that''s for sure. I think there was a slight suspicion, but it never occurred to me that he was gay," he added.