The first song he wrote at school, the Roman spirit, the offer (refused) to be the protagonist of Un Medico in famiglia. The singer tells his story and explains why he feels comfortable with a microphone. Even on Rai. And with a record he is proud of
He wrote the lyrics to his first song under the desk at school, on a sleepy morning because he always slept little: they lived in Mentana (over 20 kilometers from the capital), he attended his studies in Monterotondo, and often went to Rome in the late afternoon, in Piazza Navona, playing the hits of Italian and American singer-songwriters on the guitar, and it was difficult to wake up in the morning.
Then he set that text to music, it was Whore Romebecome Rome stripped for the Sanremo Festival, where he went after winning Castrocaro. It was the Eighties and the record companies wanted to launch him as the Miguel Bosé of our country, while he dreamed of Bob Dylan. «Being an idol for girls wasn’t for me, perhaps also due to shyness. Many proposals had also arrived for musical films, and then also the part of Doctor Lele in the TV series A doctor in the familybut I have always refused: acting is not my job.”
Luca Barbarossa: ode to love, against wickedness – guard
He then returned to Sanremo with Via Margutta. «Yes, just to continue with Romanity, and then with Stolen love, the story of sexual violence, and I received compliments from Dario Fo and Franca Rame on live television. The Ariston stage had become a sort of event, I participated in nine festivals, and in ’92 I won it with Take me out to dancededicated to my mother Annamaria”.
Is he ready for his tenth Festival, the one after Amadeus with Carlo Conti? «You should only go there if you have something to say, and in the next few months I will be very busy, among the summer best of Radio 2 Social Cluband book promotion One hundred stories for a hundred songs, published by La Nave di Teseo, now in its third printing, and which will probably become a theater show in the autumn, when I will also return to the radio. We have 220 episodes a year.”
After 14 years of broadcasting, how do you live in the Melonian Rai? «We are precisely on the radio, which is a happy island: there have been various governments, various leaders, but fortunately no interference, perhaps also because we have less visibility than TV and are less attractive».
What is the formula for this success? «Chat, games, music and bullshit, as Renzo Arbore advised me at the beginning. And always extraordinary guests who come to us live every morning. James Taylor only had to do one song and he did six, even teaching me some chords on the guitar. Tony Hadley, formerly of Spandau Ballet, never wanted to leave.”
Luca Barbarossa, the surprising story: “I couldn’t make it to the end of the month. Then, thanks to Morandi and Dalla…” – guard
After the autobiographical novel Non perderti niente, published for his 60th birthday, how did the idea for Cento storie per cento canzoni come about? “Music has always been the companion of my life and in every moment of my history and of everyone there has certainly been a song. I liked the idea of using them to tell the story, to talk about a bit of everything and in every corner of the world, from Love Me Tender a The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti. This book is the musical suitcase that I would take with me if I had to leave suddenly, without even a song of my own. To remember who I am, who we are, what we listened to and sang and why we continue to do so.”
Married for 25 years, three grown children and never any gossip: what is the secret to this perfect marriage? “I met Ingrid in Paris, and we immediately recognized something of ourselves in each other, something we wanted to never lose again. It was a lucky meeting and we got married when I was 39. Of course, we try to maintain balance, because beyond love, passion, understanding, you need the will to understand each other, to respect each other, to forgive. With maturity you become more receptive, you perk up your antennas, you intercept the other’s curiosity. And then, I have selective hearing, and I hear what I want to hear, letting what I like less slide. But it’s the same for her.”
Adjectives to describe yourself? «I prefer three nouns. Father. Husband. Author”.
Eros Ramazzotti and Luca Barbarossa, peace made after the fight at the Partita del Cuore – guard
How are you experiencing this difficult historical moment? “With discomfort. I have never been an arsonist or a firefighter, but I have chosen a third way, that of reasonableness, and I am afraid of all the violence I hear around me, the lack of humanity, when they want to pass off evil as good and good as evil, and it hurts me that people do not understand it, as if numb in indifference and resignation. The picture of society is disturbing, the return of a dark and cruel past that we thought was now far away, and I am afraid of the ferocity of young people, to whom perhaps we have not been able to transmit the fundamental things to not lose sight of life. This is also why I am proud of the successes of our athletes who represent us in the world with commitment, sacrifice, determination. Sport should be supported, encouraged, incentivized from a very young age, because it transmits values that then remain. And it is not just football”.
She was the top scorer of the national singers football team. «Yes, 221 goals in 159 games, a record still unbroken, also because they play much less now. I stopped 10 years ago, I had ruptured my Achilles tendon, and during rehabilitation I switched to tennis. I’m pleased with the Sinner effect on young people and I like his commitment, modesty, simplicity. He makes me think that maybe there is still some hope.”
Lucy Chestnut
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