Fausto Leali - The Roar of Soul

"Report" is the fun new single from an unprecedented trio: young Denny Lahome alongside two veterans of Italian music, Francesco Baccini and Fausto Leali. Last Christmas, Leali delighted old and new fans alike with moving reinterpretations of classics more or less tied to the holiday: from Leonard Cohen to Louis Armstrong, by way of James Brown and his "old friend" and inspiration John Lennon, with whom he shared a stage back in 1965. More than eighty years of life, most of them spent immersed in every corner of the music business (even becoming more than just a friend to Wilson Pickett), have left not the slightest mark on Fausto's incredible, iconic voice, as powerful, dynamic and expressive today as it was back then. We met him for this exclusive interview.

So, dear Fausto, tell us how the track "Report" came about, and how your collaboration with Denny Lahome and Francesco Baccini started.

Well... It came about like this: they called me about this project and I said "yes", because I'm interested in the story behind it, and I love collaborations, so whenever I get the chance to do one, I take it. This one seemed like a really nice opportunity, so I agreed to form this trio, and we had a great time. He's a very strong young lad, and Baccini and I have known each other for a long time, so it turned out to be a lovely encounter.

Even though the holidays are well behind us now, tell us about your latest release, "My Christmas", about the single and video for "Amo tutto" (a brand new track). How did you choose the songs that make up the album, and what do they mean to you?

No, look, we chose them together with a collaborator from Warner, and above all with Luca Chiaravalli, the conductor and arranger. We made the choice together, and then a song like "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" - which maybe seemed a bit out of place - actually ended up fitting in perfectly, since it's about love in general. Luca had heard a version of mine recorded for Rai with a big orchestra and wanted to include it, working on the arrangement himself too. He really pushed for it because he'd liked it so much. Then I immediately loved the song "Amo tutto", written by these young guys, because it's lovely, upbeat, lively, and deals with a subject that's very important, especially these days. The meaning of "Amo tutto" is simple, I mean: all the things that pass through our lives... We need to pay more attention to them and try to love them more, that's the general meaning of the song.

What can we expect in the near and distant future, both in terms of studio recordings and live performances?

Well, let's put it this way: if Elon Musk gives me a lift, I'll go and sing! (laughs) What can you expect... I mean, I do my job and I do it very gladly, I never stop because I like feeling alive. And this job gives me this great opportunity: to keep meeting people who care about you, who appreciate you, and who therefore give you a jolt of life every single time. It's really wonderful, I'm very happy with my work.

Did you undertake any specific training to refine your vocal technique? And before concerts, what kind of exercises and warm-ups help you prepare for a performance?

Absolutely nothing.

Nothing?

No, nothing at all. But above all, it's not like I did any particular training - I had a teacher when I was 17 who, for a year, once a week in Milan, taught me how to use my diaphragm: just that, and nothing else. Then of course there were my own transformations, your voice obviously changes as you grow up, but that also happened thanks to the fact that I followed certain artists I loved, Black American music and so on. Then, basically in the end, without knowing it, without even wanting it, I found myself with a distinctive voice, my own.

Eleven years have passed since the release of the book - written together with Massimo Poggini - "Notti piene di stelle". What was it like mentally retracing your career while writing it, and after eleven years, what chapter would you ideally add to the book now?

Well, basically Poggini and I made the book this way: I would tell some stories and he would write them down, making changes afterwards as a writer rightly does. But it was all built mainly around the song, it's not really written like a biography. There are indeed some passages about my private life that relate to the beginning of my career, but it's not really a book about my life. Still, there's quite a lot of my life in that book. As for the extra chapter, let's say that since then the most important chapter has been added: I got married to Germana and we're happy, we're doing great together and we're always together!

Nowadays young artists starting out sometimes fall into crisis as soon as they get a taste of the sweet smell of success (quoting The Stranglers). You went through a rather dark five-year stretch between 1981 and 1986, but a lot of time had already passed since your debut, and in your memoirs you try to offer a rational explanation for it.

No, I never went into crisis: I did go through that period, but I already had my own repertoire, a very strong background of my own, so when I did my concerts, my shows, I sang those songs and there were already plenty of them - it's not like those artists who had just one hit and then disappeared, end of story. I could still rely on about ten hits that I carried with me and built my shows around. But at a certain point there was the explosion of the singer-songwriters, which - fair enough, no complaints there - pushed people like me, Gianni Morandi and others, a bit to the sidelines, you know? Then afterwards things changed a little, also because the singer-songwriters themselves changed: at first the singer-songwriter was a closed figure, wrote his own songs, sang them himself and that was it, whereas later on they opened up a lot more. For instance, with Francesco De Gregori (who also recorded a cover of "A chi", ed.), Claudio Baglioni and many others, I worked on one of my albums ("Non solo Leali" from 2016), so doors opened up and the singer-songwriter world became, let's say, more accessible to other colleagues too.

In your view, how has the music business changed today (in the age of social media) in terms of the relationship between artist and management, artist and record label, but also artist and audience?

Yes, let's say that on social media some people write stupid things because they have this power, the power of holding a "pen" in their hands to write whatever comes into their head: there are positive sides and negative sides, but either way social media are important nowadays, you can't pretend they don't exist.

We have a mutual friend, the great Enrico Ruggeri...

Of course, of course! Speaking of singer-songwriters I've shared something with: he was on that album of mine too...

You once even "kidnapped" him and put him, gagged, in the trunk of a Cadillac! How would you describe your relationship with him, both as a man and as an artist?

(Laughs) We made that really fun video, yes (the cover of "Gianna"). We're very good friends. We don't see each other much because, in the end, we occasionally catch up in Milan, have a nice dinner together, but since we're both very busy it's hard to meet up - though once a friendship like that is formed, it stays.

What memories, on a purely human level, do you have of the Beatles, whose concerts you opened during their only Italian tour in 1965, and of the legendary Wilson Pickett, with whom you performed "Deborah" at Sanremo in 1968?

Well, Wilson Pickett and I became friends, I went to New York, he took me around the clubs, he introduced me to his colleagues like the Temptations, for example, and others too. You know he later became my daughter Deborah's godfather, so it was a great honour, a great moment in my life. With the Beatles it was wonderful, unfortunately we weren't very well equipped, there were no mobile phones, otherwise I'd have a whole archive to show you, with the Beatles, incredible! Instead nothing, we had absolutely nothing in hand. But, you know, it was beautiful, it was a marvellous experience. I loved the Beatles so much that we'd almost become a Beatles cover band, let's say: luckily we stopped that right away, because there's no point playing in cover bands! (laughs)

Is there a genre or an artist you love that might seriously shock your fans, because they wouldn't expect you to like them?

I have a different repertoire, let's say, from what I usually present. It was never accepted, or maybe it just wasn't promoted the way it should have been. I have this regret: I really wanted to let people hear some rather different material, but the most romantic song always ended up winning out, and that's what we worked on. So by now that's become my trademark. But everyone knows I can do funk, rock and things like that, because I've always proven it.

What final message and greeting would you like to send to OndaRock's readers?

Well, OndaRock is strong because you're youthful! And rock must never die, because it's the foundation of everything. I don't know what will happen in twenty years, thirty years, musically speaking, maybe even in ten, because these days things move very fast. So it's likely that a lot of what exists today will be wiped out. I don't know if things will even carry on, or get better or worse, that's impossible to say. We'll have to wait and see.

Rock should remain, as a constant...

Yes, that one for sure. It's the foundation of everything. Because rock also includes someone like Vasco: all rock, but there are also some tracks that are, so to speak, very slow. Otherwise, if we're strict about it, rock means rock'n'roll, which is a different thing (laughs). Rock, generally speaking, can also be rock blues, for example: "A chi" is a fairly blues song, if you like.

Well yes, of course. You know, on the radio I did three very long interviews with my friend Bobby Solo. One on country, one on blues and one on jazz. I basically just let him talk, completely freely...

Yes, he loves blues a lot. And he plays it! Because he really does play rock'n'roll for real, and very well too. So it's always been his passion. I know that when he goes around doing his concerts with the band, he has a great time because he's doing what he loves. I do the same, of course: I work a bit of funk, a bit of rock music into my concerts. James Brown, for example, I love doing, and people appreciate it in a way that... I can't even tell you how much! It always gets an extraordinary reception, everywhere I go.

(10 August 2025)

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