"Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" could only be referred to as Mercury's hate letter toward Queen's ex-manager, Norman Sheffield, who is reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972-1975. Though it never made a direct reference to him, upon listening to the song, Sheffield attempted to sue the band for defamation. This was how the public found who the song was about. Sheffield later admitted that it probably gave the band an incentive to dedicate the song to him after he decided to sue them. During live performances, Mercury would usually re-dedicate the song to "a real motherfucker of a gentleman", although this line was censored out on the version that appeared on their Live Killers album in 1979, possibly to avoid further legal proceedings.
In the "Classic Albums" documentary about the making of A Night at the Opera, Brian May stated that the band.
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