John Deacon's last performance with Queen

Most of the time, people “do what they do”. If you’re a rich and famous pop or rock star you keep touring and recording not because you need the money, but because you do what you do. Example, the blonde one from Abba who is sometimes considered a recluse, recorded multiple solo albums and appeared in a film. Or consider filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, who was not interviewed or photographed for over a decade between about 1987 and 1997 and was considered a recluse even though he kept working on films the entire time.

Whilst in Queen, John enjoyed going out to nightclubs, hanging out with other bands, (Chic), recording a film soundtrack without Queen, and appearing in a music video on a whim for some dudes he met on a plane.

His compositions for Queen are both highly competent and highly confident. He thought nothing of having his songs produced in the exact way he wanted them, including playing multiple instruments, covering Roger’s drums with tape and avoiding Brian’s guitar solo for a synthesiser.

Several rock musicians who withdrew or became reclusive suffered from various forms of (drug induced) psychosis. Off the top of my head - Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson and Peter Green (as well as the other early guitarist from Fleetwood Mac).

Any reference to John’s (long and highly successful) working relationship with Brian and Roger cannot explain why he would quit the music business. He would’ve been a highly regarded song writer, producer and musician.

Roger’s comment made without malice that John is a sociopath, (presumably Roger did not mean to joke that John was a psychopath but to refer to his dislike of socialising, as in a misunderstanding or deliberate misreading of the meaning of antisocial tendencies in sociopaths), is not in keeping with a man who spent his career in a successful rock band, hanging out at discos in his spare time.

Also, stage fright can afflict performers later in life. A well known example is the actor Laurence Olivier.

Isn't calling him 'fragile,' as Roger and Brian have done on several occasions, a somewhat euphemistic way of suggesting he may have serious mental health issues? Could that not only help explain the mystery surrounding what happened to him but also why both Brian and Roger have essentially lost contact with him? And could the issue perhaps involve alcohol addiction?"