Easy come, easy go: Arrested man’s version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ an online hit

he latest singing sensation on YouTube is an Alberta man who belts out the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” while riding in the back of an RCMP cruiser.

The video of Robert Wilkinson, 29, has had at least 1.6 million hits and has made news around the world.

Wilkinson was arrested last November near the town of Edson, about 150 kilometres west of Edmonton, and charged with impaired driving and refusing a breathalyzer test.

On the video, Wilkinson pleads his case with officers, then decides to express his emotions through the music of the iconic rock band Queen.

The scruffy, bearded man carefully takes off his glasses before launching into the six-minute performance — complete with hand gestures and head-banging. Incredibly, he remembers nearly all of the words.

“Easy come, easy go. Will you let me go?” sings Wilkinson. “Oh mama mia, let me go….”

At one point, after drumming on the plastic barricade, an officer says: “Robert, calm down.

“I can’t,” says Wilkinson, quickly slipping back into song.

He ends with the second-last line of the tune, but changes it from “Nothing really matters to me” to “Nothing really matters, even the RCMP.”

The grainy black-and-white video is clearly taken from a camera in the police car, but RCMP said they did not illegally release the video. It was sent to Wilkinson in a disclosure package as evidence for his trial this fall.

U.S. website The Smoking Gun reported that the unemployed man uploaded the video earlier this month for the amusement of his friends.

Wilkinson told the website he is a talented karaoke singer and has performed all 113 Beatles songs available on karaoke machines.

When asked how he was able to remember all the lyrics to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Wilkinson rattled off several digits of the mathematical constant Pi.

“If you knew him, you would know he’s a bit of a genius,” friend Joel Kneller posted on Wilkinson’s Facebook page. “This is great. He never actually admits he’s drunk once.”

“Dude, you are my new hero!” wrote Sami Rautiainen of Germany. “Didn’t see why you got arrested (hopefully you didn’t kill a man) and don’t really care, but the police car back-seat action was the reason Internet was invented!

“And props for singing the entire song! I couldn’t do that even when I’m sober.”

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