“Republic” kindergarten is one of the 80s songs that Vasco Rossi included in this year’s concert lineup. It’s second on the set list, right after Blasco Rossi. And it is dedicated to Giorgia Meloni, given that today it is she who calls for the order and discipline mentioned in the song.
He said this yesterday in a meeting at Courier, talking with journalist Andrea Laffranchi. «I wrote it 40 years ago, but today it is very relevant. Now it’s Giorgia’s time and she says that we need more order and discipline, so I quote her from the stage. The song was an allegory of the 70s, but it contains fitting concepts now that there is this direction towards a certain type of authoritarianism and freedoms are derided. The problem is this continuous derision, typical of what existed in the 1920s. I see some notable similarities.”
Vasco also spoke about drugs: «I have never used heroin, I have always said so. I knew the danger. The substances I used I took to do more of what I wanted to do, which was to write songs and stay awake. In the 80s with amphetamines I took flight, but I was always conscious. I have always used substances and I have never let them use me.” In that period «I was made the scapegoat for all the problems, but you can’t say that all drugs are the same. Putting all the substances in the same cauldron is criminal.”
As for the “social setlist” of the concerts he will hold in Milan and Bari, he explained that “it means social, not linked to social media. I will make a strong setlist, which speaks of the dramatic moment we are living in. If at 20 years old they had told me that we would arrive in a world like this, I wouldn’t have believed it, we’re going backwards, it’s the most dystopian situation that could be created.”
Speaking of the historical moment, «I see everywhere the triumph of this populism, of this constant telling of lies, where only fake news counts. They’re making us stupid and we were already a lot before, but now with social media people have become angry. The pandemic has exploded this total collective delirium and I am shocked.”
Rossi was at the center of one of these controversies when two and a half months ago he told the Courier who refused to take sides «as if it were a football match, Israel against Palestine. The Jews, after what they have suffered, have the right to a state. “Free Palestine” is a beautiful slogan, for beautiful souls: but if it implies the destruction of the State of Israel, then it would be more honest to say so. And I rebel against the destruction of Israel” and that “this obviously doesn’t stop me from mourning the civilian victims of Gaza and criticizing the bombings of Netanyahu, who is a kind of fascist.”
Yesterday he reiterated that «Netanyahu is a criminal head of government, not the entire population, but he is doing things that are not acceptable from a human point of view. But at the same time, you can’t tell me that I can’t remember the Holocaust, because it has nothing to do with it.” What is happening in Palestine «is not acceptable, but in my opinion war should become a taboo. When someone declares war, he should be immediately put in a mental hospital.”
Vasco also received the Milan Parchment from Mayor Sala: «I came from Modena, the first time I came I felt like I was in New York. I experienced this city in every sense, fully. I also found my soul mate in Milan.”
