2023-10-21 19:02:46
Time.news – “I didn’t want something celebratory but a work that represented me, for who I am”. Zucchero Fornaciari at the Rome film festival for the presentation of his homonymous docu-film he reveals himself and talks about his ‘tribulations’, about his being as a person. Yet, looking at the images, listening comments by Bono Vox, Francesco De Gregori, Sting and many others, one cannot help but be pleasantly fascinated by how incredible a path this musician has come, becoming an international rock star, a blues man passionate about his art who has played with all the greats of rock music and boasts special friendships , like the one with Luciano Pavarotti.
“What De Gregori says in the film is true – explains Zucchero in the press conference – I am a ‘troubled’ person and it is perhaps also for this reason that my vocation for the blues comes out. I am a person who was uprooted as a child, leaving the province of Reggio Emilia to end up in Versilia at the age of 11, where I never settled in. It was also an uprooting from my grandmother Diamante which made me suffer – he adds – and it ended up I never really felt at home. So there are actually melancholic thoughts in me and this also explains my passion for the blues.”
Melancholy which, adds the singer, “is beautiful, not necessarily negative. As long as it doesn’t turn into depression. In this film there is the Emilian province, my little world which was made up of the peasant mentality – he explains – in the village there was the priest known as ‘noodle’ because he was well-fed, the cooperative of the Communist Party and the church. And I grew up playing the church organ, where I also played other music and in return I was an altar boy.”
And here is the memory of Luciano Pavarotti: “I was lucky enough to be his friend – he says – I made ‘Miserere’ with him. He was a genuine person. When we saw each other we spoke in dialect. For me he was a beacon. Genuine though being planetary, he was tied to his roots, when he went home he played trumps. He and I, genuine – he adds – for me authenticity is the basis of everything: you can be Jesus, but the thing that matters to me is understanding and feel the genuineness of a person. When you are off stage or off stage you have to be yourself.”
We have come a long way within an incredible story: “I have often thought about this – admits Zucchero – I have thought about how many people and how many rock stars I have met and all of this excites me. I must say that the testimonies of colleagues who talk about me in the film they were also too generous. They seemed eager to talk about me and my stories and when I saw the finished film I asked myself: how did I do it? It takes consistency and tenacity – she adds – but in my case, tenacity was a requirement. You start by saying that you want to be a musician and live in a decent, sufficient way, you start like that but then I would never have thought of doing all this”.
In fact, he still remembers the bluesman, “the first times were very hard. I returned home defeated. I tried them all until it arrived ‘Donne’ which then ranked second to last at the Sanremo Festival but it was a success. There was talent but also a component of luck: in a moment of my life, when I was depressed, the most incredible things happened – he still remembers – Sting called me and I wrote ‘Miserere’: good things happened when I was sick . So I was troubled, but now it’s better.”
In 2024 Zucchero will return live in stadiums, leaving for Europe in March, then a parenthesis in Italy and back to South America. “I have never followed the rules of the musician, album and then concert. I take inspiration from Eric Clapton and BB King, people who always go and play, especially now that the discography is suffering a lot. I follow my instinct and put singing ahead,” he concludes.
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