The Belgian singer, who died at the age of 72 from pancreatic cancer, gave us this interview in September 2019.
It’s 5 p.m. and we think it’s the right time to have an aperitif with Arno. Especially since the 70-year-old Belgian singer pays tribute to “Lady Alcohol” in Healthboutique, his very successful new rock album which has just been released. Magnifying glass ! “It’s too early to drink,” says Arno, shaggy white hair and piercing gaze, in front of his Coke zero garnished with a slice of lemon. In the absence of alcohol, we will talk about Donald Trump and Brexit, and, of course, sex and rock’n’roll. Unbridled interview.
Point : Your album is called Healthboutique, a word that means brothel. Is the mess in your head or in the world?
Arno : The two ! “Santeboutique” is an old expression used in the north of France, on the Belgian coast and in Brussels to talk about “bazaar”. It is the human being from whom my inspiration comes who creates this mess. And I am a human being and do stupid things. The record company wanted me to make an album in America with American musicians. But I live in Europe and I feel European. I even wrote “Putain Putain” in 1983, when I got off the train at the Gare du Nord, a song that said: “Damn, that’s really good, we’re all Europeans. “My music is European and with my musicians too, especially John Parish [collaborateur notamment de PJ Harvey et de Eels, NDLR] who is anti-Brexit.
Is Brexit making you sad?
I am scared with everything that is happening in the world, whether in Europe or America, with Brexit and the rise of extremism. We live in a very conservative period and I don’t know in which direction we are going. Everything is changing very quickly. Are we reliving the 1930s? In Belgium, recently, at a rock festival, there were young people talking about the climate and far-right groups came with flags and attacked these young people.
I have my own idea of where the problems come from. Brexit and the rise of extremists is the fault of the hairdressers! Look at the hairstyle of Donald Trump and that of Boris Johnson: they are the same! In the Netherlands there is also the nationalist Geert Wilders who has a hairstyle like them. It’s their hairdressers who are making a mess in their heads and messing up global geopolitics! Trump’s hairstyle looks like a pink bunny’s ass.
Will hairdressers lead us to the extinction of humanity?
I’m an old sperm turned pessimist. Before I was a leftist, an anarchist. Not a skydiver! (Laughs) When I was young, rock was a thing against the system, the way we were dressed, the way we had our hair… There were restaurants you couldn’t go into. In May 1968, in London, I had met a French au pair who suggested that I go to Paris. We meet at Place de la République, there were lots of young people demonstrating, Cohn-Bendit, etc. and I saw two old people in the square. It was Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. I will never forget this moment. In the evening, I visit the Champs-Élysées and see Jean-Paul Sartre drinking champagne in the brasserie. I said to myself: “Here is a socialist with holes in his pockets! »
Yesterday is dead, I live today and tomorrow does not exist.
Are you nostalgic for that time?
I don’t like to be nostalgic, because it gives me melancholy. But I am confronted with this, I have flashbacks. I have lived a wonderful life. My generation cannot complain: we are the first not to have experienced any war in Europe. My grandfather had two, my father one. My father took refuge in England and did his military service in the Royal Air Force. My grandmother was born in 1901 and she sang in silent cinemas in Belgium. I was born in a taxi in Ostend, just in front of the hospital. Later, when I was 15, I found a wallet and went to the cops to return it. The next day, the doorbell rings. It was the taxi driver who saw me born. He left 50 Belgian francs to thank me.
Is it true that you cooked for Marvin Gaye?
Yes, I cooked in the early 1980s for Marvin Gaye. I was a cook by training, but I preferred to make music. Marvin Gaye had come to live in Ostend, it is there that he recorded his last album. At the time, I was in deep shit, I had more money and a boyfriend, Freddy Cousaert, offered to cook for Marvin. Today, I no longer cook. Every once in a while, I make an omelet…
Do you feel old?
I don’t think about age. Yesterday is dead, I live today and tomorrow does not exist. I live in the moment. I don’t think in numbers. I don’t feel like I’m 70, I still have all my teeth. For now… (laughs)
But in your song “Ça chante”, you still mention “zero libido”. The days of the “Girls by the Sea” seem a long way off…
Yes. But anyone can be faced with zero libido. For me, it still works. The “zero” is replaced by “organic”. I have an organic libido! I still feel the Eiffel Tower in me! But hey, otherwise, cerebral erections last longer… As my grandmother used to say to her friends, men when they come, it’s like birds: “chip, chip, and it’s over”. I made a song out of it.
I’m still addicted to rock’n’roll: it’s a mistress who never cheated on me and thanks to whom I’m alive.
Is it harder to be a musician than before?
Me, I lived with my ass in butter. In the 1970s, money was not important to us, we shared everything: joints, food from the fridge… At the time, the French rock magazine Best had organized a competition at Golf-Drouot [temple du rock à Paris aujourd’hui fermé, NDLR]. We won the prize which was some money and a contract with a record company. We took the money. When we returned to Belgium, we realized that we had forgotten the contract in France… In time, we were happy with a sandwich and a bottle of beer. Now, groups ask for a good caterer and a good bottle of wine. But hey, to cultivate yourself, you have to get wet!
Where does your passion for rock come from?
I discovered rock with Elvis Presley. I was 8 years old. I was at a friend’s house and his two teenage sisters, Dorothée and Raymonde, were listening to “One Night with You”. I was in ecstasy. I was addicted from the age of 8 and for the rest of my life. And I’m still addicted to rock’n’roll: it’s a mistress who never cheated on me and thanks to whom I’m alive.