The singer-songwriter: only one spectator came to one of my concerts. Lunches in the canteen with Lucio Battisti: «I have assimilated the thought of him. I married his will to belong “
There is a crocodile at the entrance. The model that portrays Fonopoli, the citadel of music imagined by Renato Zero in the 90s he is in good company: hats of all shapes and colors, photos, paintings, a giant poster of
Rascal
of Chaplin with the words “Hello nì”, a wall of cardboard boxes. “I’m moving,” says the king of the Sorcini who, at the age of 72 (and career 55), is preparing for another of his exploits. After the provocations in boa and sequins, the lay prayer of his Ave Mariathe philosophical utterances of Zerovskijthe sacred music of Act of Faithbecomes a gladiator to conquer in September the ancient Roman arena of the Circus Maximus with six concerts (five already sold out). «They are among those who complicate their lives, a sign of Libra, which does not grant appeal tests, is never tolerant especially on men, while with women it is more condescending. This is the train that should have gone through in 2020. The thought of celebrating seventy years is not the same as it was 800 days ago, we need to reshuffle the numbers and extract a schedule that also takes into account what has happened in my life in all this. time: I recorded a triple disc, then it came Act of Faith, in the company of wonderful friends ». Pause. The phone rings, the notes are those of Beat It.
–
Does he have Michael Jackson on the ringtone?
“It gives me a little panache. I happen to fish out beautiful throat from the past like Sarah Vaughan, José Feliciano, we have had a blatant luck to be born in an age where everything has happened, for better or for worse. Perhaps this is why we are a bit dazed today ».
–
In 72 years he will have seen several.
«At the end of the Sixties I also opened the Jimi Hendrix concert at the Brancaccio. I danced with seven others. We spread our arms towards the back of the scene and this curly-haired guy entered who was biting the strings of the guitar without getting shocked, I didn’t understand how it was possible ».
–
As he remembers those years?
“The more you were around, the more things happened. We had this attitude to the aggression of the sidewalk, of an impresario’s door, we responded to the call to arms of musicians who once were looking for a drummer, once a bassist. Ideas mixed. Then the computers arrived and everything turned upside down. Some believe that getting in front of a Pro Tools is a victory. I believe it is a defeat because you move away from the human, from physical and mental fatigue, from going to seek inspiration ».
–
But today many of these artists fill clubs and palaces with sold out shots.
“It’s a little less effective. When the sold out gradually comes it leads you to believe that it is the fruit of all your work. Now the ticket office runs out because people need to meet, go outside. The merit is no longer just the artist. You are no longer the stone of scandal ».
–
Remember the first sold out concert?
“No, but I remember the one with a spectator. Christmas Eve of ’73 at the Red Folk. The owner wanted to refund his ticket and send him home. I forced myself: “I left my family saying I was going to work.” I exhibited for him who returned the following evening with 22 people ».
–
The first record was produced by Gianni Boncompagni. How did it go?
«He was a sassy, intrusive kid but with a monstrous life charge and a rare availability. He took me to audition at RCA with ripped pants and merchandise on display, covered in a sweatshirt, for a split in the broadcast. Yellow flag. After two weeks she called me: “You have to come and sing”. I sounded like a toad with my little annoying little voice. About thirty copies of the album were sold, so many are my relatives who bought them ».
–
In ’73 “No! Mom, no! », Debut album. With make-up and sequins, she lashed out at conformism and abortion, exalting the imagination.
“That record announced that I would be one with a thousand faces. The mask was an element of the Greeks and Latins, they preferred it to diplomacy, to institutional falsehood, because it gave life to a game in which intuition can be tested. When I see someone I can’t decipher, I want to look inside him to understand him. I have been a victim of appearance every time they wanted to put a label on me just because they looked at the package. Need makes the man a thief. When you are hungry, for anything, you become a lizard, a pachyderm, a monkey. I love the Neapolitans because they signed a pact with life: they are not gelatinous, static. If I were to present an Italian abroad, I would send a Neapolitan ».
–
The following year, in “Someone restore my soul” he tackles the topic of pedophilia.
“People used to say to me: Why are you talking about pedophiles if they aren’t there? Often to write my songs the photos of the memory are turned on. One day I was in Piazza Augusto Imperatore with a butterfly net and my dog. A gentleman with an unbuttoned flap asked me: “Why don’t you come here to get the butterflies?” Imagine a child witnessing such a thing … The adult Renato would take that gentleman to the police station ».
–
Other photos of the memory to which it is linked?
“When I was little we lived in the historic center, via Ripetta. In the house three bachelor uncles, my grandmother Renata, my three sisters, my father, my mother, me, our female German shepherd who took me for a walk. It wasn’t a big apartment but we had camped out well. In the winter it got warm with each other. We breathed Rome in its most profound entity ».
–
Did you move from the center to the suburbs?
“We didn’t have a bathroom in the house, but on the balcony. And the gentlemen who had set their sights on this Rome with great building prospects said to all families like ours: “If you go to the suburbs, you also have the service inside the house”. As soon as we moved, they renovated the apartments in the center, adding eight bathrooms… one would have been enough for us. But we left a stepmother and found a mother, the township ».
–
After the success of «Mi vendo», he founded his own label. Because?
«I have demanded my freedom. If you are the master of your work, no one can control your thinking and your personality. Lucio Battisti used to say: if you want the work you have to take the work, not the substitute. The widow Grazia Letizia defends this position and is the only one who can protect it. Lucio was having lunch at the canteen of the RCA, alone, he did not like being in common with the managers. But every time he saw me he invited me to his table. He confided. I have assimilated the thought of him. I married his will to belong. If before I was on the balls of the record companies, at a certain point I stopped putting up with them ».
–
How do you approach the stage?
“Physically I don’t follow rules. But for someone like me who plays scientific scopone, broom, tresette at least the fingertips are exercised – she laughs – Concentration is another thing. When you are there, detachment from emotion is always complicated. Every time you sing a song you remember the old van that used to take you around, when you loaded the instruments alone. And then you wonder if you liked it, if the record sells … ».
–
In his audience children and the elderly …
«They have no filters, they do not use the meter of dismay. And it worked for me because it was the elders who brought the young people to me. Raffaella Carrà told me that one day in Bellaria her grandmother told her: “Raffaellina tonight you have to take me to see Renato Zero”. Raffaella had never come to one of my concerts, she met me thanks to her grandmother. We also lived close by, both in Rome and by the sea. For me it was a great advantage: she was a friend, an inspirational colleague. When I was doing broadcasts together, she and Japino would ask me: “What do you want to do?” They knew I already had a rabbit out of the hat ».
–
With Raffaella and Corrado he took part in Fantastico 3 in Rai. How did it go?
“I have always had strong suspicions about Rai because a company that asks for the license fee is said to be public but does not prove it. They wanted to show that they were ahead, they understood the changes, they favored them. They thought of me for that Fantastic as at the beautiful funeral of an uncomfortable artist. I, on the other hand, wanted to show that it was not just a play of colors, shapes and provocations, but perhaps there was something else in my presence ».
–
Don’t you have a great opinion of TV?
«She has lost her identity, she is slapped in the face by approximation. In ’54 we had one. Brand Admiral. A box with knobs, which fried from morning to night because there was hardly anything to look at. Then you lit up and you saw Giancarlo Cobelli who was a mime, Pasolini, the master Alberto Manzi, the reportages of Mario Soldati in a country that seemed to be the place of fairy tales, with all the ignorance of which Italy was the master but with the strength to want to grow because there was a nation to rebuild ».
–
The unexpected encounter?
“With Sophia Loren. I had celebrated Trovajoli’s birthday at the Argentario and he came to my house with a magnum of champagne. Then in September we met for dinner with him to celebrate it again. There were his wife Maria Paola, Sophia and her sister, Gianni Battistoni and myself. When I arrived I saw Sophia and Armando in the garden, on a bench whispering. They were two friends who were sharing their life. A wonderful evening, we talked about the increase in the price of spinach and the heat ».
–
How is Renato Zero today?
«I didn’t put on slippers and dressing gown, I never accepted that the other square of the bed was inhabited. But I love, I’m not a widower. When I leave the house I’m at home, I talk to the old woman, the little boy. Someone now also calls me teacher … I have been promoted ».
–
June 30, 2022 (change June 30, 2022 | 07:22)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
–
—
