The bluesman congratulates the voice of the Rolling Stones on his 80th birthday: “We’ll see you for dinner in Syracuse in the next few days: Mick loves Italy”
There will be time to toast. Further on. «Even if he is always measured … in 2020 at the party for his 77th birthday he drank half a glass of white». Zucchero will celebrate Mick Jagger’s 80th birthday on July 26, a few days later in Syracuse. Those of the Greek Theater (July 28, 29 and 30) are three of the 45 dates of the world tour of our blues man which will end on August 7 in Spain (other Italian dates on July 24 and 25 in Caserta, July 27 in Agrigento). “We’ll meet at his favorite restaurant: it’s ten minutes from the archaeological site.”
When did you meet him?
«It was 1999. It was a festival in Austria where I played after Bryan Adams and before the Rolling Stones. They invited me to their dressing room: they had a real bar, billiard table, jukebox… I was excited, somewhere between panic and eagerness to do things. It struck me to see them so calm and relaxed before the show».
Last year they wanted her to open their show in Germany.
«I asked myself “but why me?”. I didn’t wait for an answer, I immediately said “yes”. Mick thanked me three times. With him I have a bond that goes beyond respect and esteem, there is chemistry ».
Beware of talking about chemistry: the Stones were a symbol of the triad «sex, drugs and rock’n’roll»…
«I think Mick hasn’t stopped with sex since he became a dad a few years ago… Not even with rock. For drugs he seems to me a very attentive to health, he does not go wrong. In the seventies it fascinated me to see these cursed characters on stage, I never liked the clean, beautiful and glossy ones. I too would have liked to be cursed, but drugs are really absent from my roots, they have never entered my life”.
Does Jagger love Italy?
«Even before having a home in Sicily, he often came on holiday to our country. In 2020 I was among the guests at his birthday in the estate of Count Gaddo della Gherardesca in Castagneto Carducci. I made one of my sugary drinks…».
That is to say?
«I greeted him with an “I’ve heard about you”, I heard about you… And he “me too”… While waiting for dinner I thought that if anyone ever asked me to play I would have to prepare something. So I studied ‘Con le Mie Tears’, the Italian version of ‘As Tears Go By’, the only song the Stones sang in Italian
. At one point someone actually stood up and asked me to sing something. He, holding his one-year-old son, joined in. He did the harmonies for me, he still remembered it. Then he asked me “Without Madonna” ».
«Without Madonna»?
«Yes, that’s how he mangled “Senza una donna”. She sang that too. At the end of the evening, I dedicated to him my Italian version of “Ave Maria No Morro”, a prayer from the Brazilian favelas. Her eyes were shining: even the lions of rock’n’roll are moved».
Does he know you once stole the Stones’ producer?
“I was in Los Angeles for ‘Chocabeck’ when Don Was was urgently called by them. He was between two fires because he hadn’t finished the job with me yet. He explained to the Stones that he had an engagement and they understood. Years later Mick reminded me: “you stole my producer when I needed it”».
Bono, Sting, Eric Clapton, Miles Davis… the list of his international collaborations is endless. Latest Coldplay who invited you to San Siro a month ago. How did it go?
“We met years ago in Los Angeles. The day they were at San Siro they called me at three in the afternoon. I was at my house, in Pontremoli. I took the car and went. I imagined that they would ask me to do “Senza una donna”, famous in England for the duet with Paul Young, or their “The Scientist” of which I recorded a cover. Instead Chris had already prepared “Diamond”. He asked me to explain the meaning of the text and when I told him my grandmother’s story I saw him moved. It was nice to hear the whole stadium sing it: it’s not my audience. And then came the surprise of Chris on his knees that he asks me for another song ».
Mick is missing from the list… Will you ask him in Syracuse?
«On those occasions we don’t talk about music. These collaborations come if you don’t look for them. Maybe I have good karma or she will be my grandmother’s lucky star. I’ve never had self-esteem but when I’m retired it will be nice to re-read the messages I exchanged with these giants».
His «World Wild Tour»?
«In these days I’m between Germany and northern Europe, so I’ll go back to Italy to close in Spain. Not to praise myself, but I’ve often sold out places of 10,000 people. I am harvesting after years of sowing».
July 22, 2023 (change July 22, 2023 | 07:07)
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