Roby Facchinetti, how will you celebrate your eightieth birthday on May 1st?
«I have seven grandchildren, take a guess…»
Will they sing “One Hundred of These Lives” to her?
«She’s joking, but Mia (the daughter of Francesco Facchinetti and Alessia Marcuzzi, ed) plays “Just Give Me a Minute” on the piano very well».
Family talent.
«It hasn’t always been easy for me. I tell it in my autobiography “What a spectacle life is”: I was born in Astino, in the Bergamo area, to a humble family and every day I walked ten kilometers to go first to school and then to the after-school club.”
The land of Pope Roncalli.
«In my life I have met four Popes but he has a special place in my heart. Does he know that I pray every night? When I was a child in my house we recited two rosaries a day. Prayer helps me now in evening comfort.”
Eighty years old but she is in full swing. Concerts with the “rediscovered” Pooh, evenings, books.
«If one day I wake up with nothing to do I get anxious, what can I do?».
Has it always been like this?
«I remember the beginnings, which were very difficult. We were in the second half of the 60s, musical bands had many expenses, for example the purchase of instruments, maintenance. Riccardo (Fogli, ed.) and I shared a sandwich many times. He and I, then, weren’t from Bologna like the others, do you want to include the away games too?”.
Were the Poohs his real family?
«No, of course, but I can say that I spent more time with them than with my wives and children».
Today, almost sixty years after their debut, what do you think is the great musical merit of Pooh?
«We have imposed a canon, we have invented a new way of making music».
Like Pink Floyd.
«I don’t like comparisons and then they are two different things».
But Paul McCartney dotes on you, she wrote it.
«We have sold over eighty million records worldwide, you name it».
Little tower game?
“Ouch.”
McCartney or Lennon?
«Premise: McCartney is an extraordinary, versatile and innovative artist. But Lennon’s charisma is something unique.”
Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel?
«Here I’m sure, I prefer Collins. In my opinion he is the true voice of Genesis.”
Yoko Ono or Patty Pravo?
“What a nasty thing”.
Answer.
«Patty Pravo. You didn’t expect this, huh?”.
No, because legend has it that when she “took away” Riccardo Fogli…
«Let it be on record: I think that Patty Pravo was one of the very few Italian truly “divas”. I remember well when she was with Riccardo and we happened to bump into her in some city: furs, Rolls with tinted windows, armored hotel rooms. Once under our hotel we saw a crowd of three hundred people and they were all there for her.”
However, she also met Yoko Ono.
«Like I said, I’m a Lennon fan and once, in New York, I met Yoko right near the place where John was killed. I was with the other “guys” and so we asked her to take a photo together. She, denying any slander against her, was very kind, even though she begged us not to take the photo right there. And rightly so, I add.”
Have your healthy Bergamo roots protected you enough from the “excesses” of a star’s life?
«Very, you think I don’t even smoke cigarettes. But once in New York they gave us a pack of marijuana cigarettes. Dodi and I decided to try, sure that it would make us sound like a god. But then we went on stage and while the others sang the first song, Battaglia and I immediately moved on to the finale. We were so done! Needless to say, that was the first and last time for me.”
No alcohol?
«Once we were in Maui, Hawaii and I had spent a sleepless night composing “My Woman”. I was so elated that the next night at the restaurant I had three Mai Tai cocktails on an empty stomach. Everything began to appear double to me, I saw two Canzians, you think. Here too, the first and last hangover of my life, today I collect fine wines and have a cellar with 2,500 bottles, mostly reds.”
She supports Atalanta.
“Naturally. And I’ll tell you something funny. When Pippo Inzaghi arrived in Bergamo, I told him to come to my house for a report on famous fans. Pippo arrived and entered the tavern, where my wife Giovanna was waiting for the electrician. She didn’t recognize him and so she greeted him with “Ah, thank goodness he’s arrived, so the electrical panel is there, see what he can do”.
His real name is Camillo, why did he choose Roby?
«Because at the time the English-speaking diminutive was popular, like Tony or Ricky, but in the beginning I should have been called Ferdinando. Then, a few days before giving birth, an atrocious doubt assailed my mother: what if they had called me “Bamboo-faced Ferdinand”?”.
Roby, in 1976 you composed a song, «Pierre», which addressed a topic that was still taboo at the time, homosexuality. How was it born?
«From the sensitivity of a great poet like Valerio Negrini, who wrote the lyrics to my music. You see, the fact that we Pooh chose not to have any political color turned out to be a good idea because we always felt very free in our experimentation, both in lyrics and in music. Oh God, it’s also true that, precisely because we didn’t take sides, in those years they immediately put us on the right: if you didn’t take a position on the left, it automatically meant that you were on the other side, absurd.”
No protests between the 60s and 70s?
«I remember a Molotov cocktail that grazed the stage where we were playing, at the theater in Salerno. And of course the madness of the evening at the Vigorelli in Milan on 5 July 1971, when the Cantagiro hosted Led Zeppelin. We brought “Tanta desire di lei”, but people didn’t want to hear Italian melodies, they only wanted Robert Plant and his companions. How many tomatoes did we, Gianni Morandi, Lucio Dalla, the Ricchi and Poveri take that evening…».
Is it true that you have precious musical instruments?
«Let’s say historical, like the Hohner keyboard that Them used to record the hit “Gloria”, the Hammond L122 organ with the Leslie of Procol Harum. With Pooh I was the first to use these instruments in Italy.”
In 2023 your album «Parsifal», a milestone of Italian prog, turned half a century.
«But do you know that only today, fifty years later, did I understand how important it was? It’s difficult to evaluate a new song. For example, we were convinced that the song “In silence” would be a success, but today everyone remembers the B-side of that album, “Piccola Katy”».
Roby, what is the antidote to boredom?
«The belief that every time I play I know that I have different people in front of me, because luckily the audience changes and I change too».
