Great sympathy

«Battisti? In reality, between me and I thought that at most it would end up being a car player ». Soundtrack of a generation with songs such as Dreaming of California, the wind, the island of Wight, without lightPietruccio Montalbetti – founder and historian guitarist of Dik Dik – does not fall within the ranks of those who want to be registered Lucio Battisti‘s successDespite their relationship, it started well before they both became famous and that for this reason it was authentic, frank, fraternal. «The only person who understood something was Roby Matano, the leader of the same orchestra in which Lucio played the guitar. All the others nothing, not even Mogol He understood it. When Battisti made him heard his songs I remember that Mogol looked at him and said to him: Well, it is not very much to me, but let’s see if we can combine something ».
Pieces of friendship and life, of music and apprenticeship, of tours and meetings that have merged into History of two friends and Dik Dikthe new book by Pietrucci Montalbetti published by Minerva. A book that is many things: an autobiography, a tribute to Lucio Battisti, a musical and human journey.

Two myths to dispel. Was Battisti fascist?
“That he was a fascist was a great bale, he was first of all was apolitical.”

Taccagno?
“There is a word, thrift, which is often confused with another word, avarice. He was simply thrifty. The most beautiful car I saw him drive was a Mercedes Diesel: he wasn’t a consumerist, he was a simple person ».

Is it true that he refused three billion lire to go on TV?
«They wanted him as a guest at a roundabout on the sea, a program conducted by Red Ronnie and Mara Venier flanked by Teocoli And Boldi. For that appeared they came to offer him a white check, he could have asked for any figure. I was to make me ambassador of the proposal. He replied with sly and mocking gaze: “It can be done under these conditions: I want 3 billion, one for me, one by grace (the wife) and one for you. I will introduce myself with a coat with a hood and I will stay back on the back of the stage”. He was not attached to money ».

Your first meeting was in via dei Cinquecento in Milan, in a room of a parish cinema used as a recording studio.
«When I arrived, the sound of a piano that invaded the room I approached, I approached the face of the face of those who were playing it, intrigued me. We looked at each other and it was he who spoke first, without stopping playing: who are you, a sound technician? I tried to that young unknown an immediate empathy, perhaps for his sweet face, or for his smile that he directed me before starting to play. “

On that occasion he also made her feel his songs.
“I lent him my guitar to accompany herself in the melody and he, in a faint voice, inton some of his compositions asking me what I thought of it. I died and encouraged him, but in reality I thought between me and me that at the best he would end up being a car player ».

But wasn’t she the first to believe in him? On the B side of your first disc you put its if you stay with me.
“But I didn’t do it because I believed in him! I did it because I was nice to me. When we engraved our first single to do a favor I took the song less worse than all those he had composed. I repeat: it was a genius, but I realized it later ».

In those years with Dik Dik you recorded several songs under Lucio’s supervision as an executive producer. But it wasn’t just this for you.
He laughs: «At the time that nobody was liked yet, it was also our driver. One day he said to me: feel a favor, take me to Poggio Bustone (his hometown) so I say that I am a friend of the Dik Dik. There was half a country waiting for us and he stopped everyone: this is my friend, this is my friend! Sometimes life is truly absurd ».

At one point Battisti decided to sing his songs, rather than entrusting them to others.
«At first his decision was not welcomed, the same memories (his record company) had several perplexities, considering him more suitable for writing songs rather than interpreting them. The artistic director Iller Pattacini summoned me and asked me to dissuade him from his idea. An idea that did not even share Mogol (“it is better that your songs don’t sing them,” he said) “.

And who did you?
“I said nothing to Lucio, but I gave him a advice: if you become famous, if you become a star, know that it is not easy to live in the midst of people.”

Battisti was not made for that overwhelming, popular success, in which you have to “get dirty” your hands. How did popularity live?
“Once we went to eat perch in a restaurant. As we enter they recognize him: – Ah, Lucio Battisti! – No, I’m not Lucio Battisti. When we go out I say to him: – Listen Lucio, can I tell you that you are an idiot? I already don’t understand why you stop that it is immoral to sign autographs. And then you always deny you, but it’s not fair. Know that you are very good, a phenomenon, but if there had not been so many people to buy your records, you would be one of many. You have a duty to be kind to everyone ».

Of character like was it?
“He was stubborn, determined and adamant when he firmly believed in something.”

You also had a beach holiday in Romagna, but she didn’t like to stay in costume.
«He told me that as a child he was excluded and targeted because of his physical form by the locals of the place. He said: “Nobody ever invited me to play football, they wasolated me, so often I loosened in my thoughts. I always loved the nature and the woods, taken to go there for my business, I didn’t spend a lot of time with my peers. Then, reached adolescence, I lost weight suddenly and on the skin I remained these signs that look like scarring. more than he wants, and I owe this my attitude reserved for you “».

Even the scarf around the neck was used to “hide”, and it is merit.
«I had noticed that on the right side of the neck he had two signs, similar to two small scars that he hid often bringing sweaters and turtlenecks. One day, we were at the Rieti Festival in 1967, I realized his request for help: I simply paraded the scarf I brought and knocked him around his neck so he found some security. Since then he began to use it. “

You have always remained friends.
«A thread tied us every time we met again, no matter how long it had passed, everything resumed exactly where we left it. We remained forever those two young dreamers who set up each other in any condition – starting from that first ramshackle engraving room – to make their way around the world ».
Friends also in spite of his wife? It does not pass for an easy …
“I have never had a great sympathy for her, I think she contributed to isolating him further.”

Of Mogol what do you think?
«I have never had great sympathy for him too. But I recognize him the ability to open what I called the “safe Battisti” and bring out of him the great creativity and talent he was equipped with knowing how to perfectly combine them with his own ».

Battisti’s consecration came in 1969. Time and success changed it?
«At one point Lucio closed in the world and his reserved character had become more shady of the times of our youth. Lucio did not care about popularity unlike many artists: he wanted to live a normal life and understanding that the two could not coexist, his response was iron and for this badly understood ».

Did you very different, who was Lucio for you?
«He was a safe friend, who I blindly trusted, a person I knew would always listen to me, perhaps my greatest listener. My real aspiration was being an explorer, I have always traveled a lot, I saw half the world. I, perhaps, for him I was a small window on that world he had chosen to close outside the gates of his beautiful home ».