Renato Zero - La favola sua

Return to Zerofollia

“Zero had become too overbearing, I had to put him back in his place. But by now we sleep in the same bed and use the same razor. I owe him everything: he tore me away from boredom at fifteen, making me change my life.” It's a birthday for two that Renato Zero is celebrating with his new record. On one side, the man: Renato, 69 years full of joys and scars. On the other, Zero the madman, his artistic alter ego, an incorrigible master of extravagance, shape-shifting and transgression. Not by chance, then, the title of his new album, which the Roman artist celebrates at the Auditorium, in the company of journalists and fans. Thirteen songs in which Renato Fiacchini looks at himself in the mirror, recounting his present and looking back with a touch of nostalgia at his glorious past: the Piper, the ostrich feathers, the outfits all sequins and glitter.

Today, though, he claims his role as a “healthy carrier of courage,” tackling head-on some of the hottest issues of the moment. Starting with the addiction to technology and social media: “I prefer the intercom to Facebook” — he sums up in his own style, hands clasped around the microphone and giant glitter sunglasses on, warning: “At concerts, don't violate your eyes inside those little squares, watch the show with your own eyes, not through your phones.” Then he stumbles over “Sara Ferragni,” a role model to emulate and surpass. And to those who remind him her name is actually Chiara, he replies mockingly: “You see, we jungle folk aren't up to date…”

What kind of record is “Zero il folle”?

It's a work of total honesty and humility. Phil Palmer, Trevor Horn and Alan Clark brought me back to a London of the past, at the Marquee I used to hear some great bands... Today I thank the audience. I've had all kinds of experiences, recently I worked with Tim Burton on a dubbing project. This shedding of skin is the best formula for granting yourself the versatility of a craft. Anyway, it's above all a record made by musicians: yesterday morning I buried Pro Tools. It had really pissed me off. Records aren't made at home, in front of a mirror.

In your songbook there are historical patterns that keep recurring. Like the infamous spermatozoa, which once were “the only force, all you have” (“Il cielo”) and are now the target of an urgent appeal: “Come on, wake up, a more decent and far less inconclusive sex” (“La culla è vuota”). Does the birth rate remain an essential value for you?

Let's be clear, I certainly don't want assembly lines, and you can't think of repopulating by having kids only to abandon them to their fate. But procreation is a way of ensuring continuity. In my own small way, I adopted Roberto, who made me a grandfather to two grandchildren.

It's a short step, though, into the very slippery territory of abortion… Can you clarify your position on this?

Careful: I don't feel like pointing the finger at women who have abortions, for instance in cases of violence or other critical situations. But it can't be used as a form of contraception, that's all. My message is a positive one, it's not meant to turn into moralizing criticism at all.

Then again, moralizing has never been your specialty…

Hardly, I'm an excellent sinner, someone who certainly doesn't expect special treatment from up above. I remember already at eighteen, full of curiosity and the urge to let off steam, going off to discover the nooks and crannies of anatomy. Nowadays, though, people let off steam at 60 and get divorced at 70…

In this constant shape-shifting of yours, what remains your fixed point?

Changing skin every time is the best formula, because ours isn't a job like any other. But there are always certainties. For instance, I will never become a conservative, I'm someone who wanted to break out of the mold, I told the bourgeoisie to fuck off as a kid and I've never regretted it. And you achieve all this if you're a healthy carrier of courage, that courage that Zero il folle gave me. As I write in the record, “Folle è chi sogna, chi è libero, chi provoca, chi cambia.”

Besides the usual bigots, lately you've also set your sights on armchair pundits. Like the ones attacking Greta Thunberg…

Well, sure, if a young girl dares to raise her hand and say: I don't want to die of pollution, I want a healthy world to grow up in - I don't find that scandalous at all. And yet on social media she gets hurled insults that not even a politician would deserve!

Is there anything that scares you?

Well, at my age I'm not even afraid of death anymore. After all, I've died so many times already… But now I think about the friends I've lost: Lucio Dalla, Ivan Graziani, Mango. Those are friends who are like a garment I wear all the time. They were messengers of complicity and inspiration. Dedicating "Quattro passi nel blu" to them was something I had to do.

(October 1, 2019)

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Zero to Zerovskji

"Pop felt too tight for me. So I looked to symphonic music, to operatic melodies. And I expanded: I'll be in theaters with a 61-piece orchestra, 30 choir singers and 7 actors." This total show, Zerovskij… only for love, is teased on CD as a prelude, marking fifty years of Renato Zero's career. We reached him by phone for a no-frills chat, in which we each got a few grievances off our chests.

Who on earth is Zerovskij?!

I played on a tribute to a homeland of opera, Russia, so Zero was conjugated into Zerovskij.

And what happens in the show?

There will also be other songs, and the seven actors will play Adam and Eve, life, death, hate, love and time. We'll hear their impressions of life today.

In "Ti do i voli miei" you call yourself a "soul against the wind" amid the "coming and going of boredom and mediocrity". What, specifically, bores you?

At first I felt alone because of my ostrich feathers, because of my being different. Today I find myself alone in searching for answers to this boredom, a symptom of social malaise. If enthusiasm doesn't kick in, life is hard.

Aren't there other souls against the wind?

I see few of them. But you can still draw on important examples. I think of how relevant Pasolini and Kerouac still are, of the visionary, bitter path of Dario Fo and Franca Rame. Maybe we had too many geniuses all at once, packed into a couple of decades.

Speaking of ostrich feathers, how are things going with the gay community?

We've moved past the misunderstandings, thank God.

It was paradoxical, really. I remember that back then the single "Mi vendo" scandalized the respectable mothers of my elementary school classmates...

My journey speaks for itself. Let's not make the mistake of asking the Mona Lisa why she's smiling. I've always fought against discrimination, against unjust and vicious attitudes toward certain kinds of people. But there are seven billion of us, it's impossible to please everyone, and there will always be someone ready to misunderstand you.

After fifty years of career, how changed do you feel?

A tree has many branches and many leaves. But if there's an underlying purpose, change only means growth. I've stayed true to myself, but I'm also at peace with the world.

Is that the difference?

When you get ignored, you either shut yourself away and become fodder for your analyst, or you grab a weapon and take someone out, or you dress up as a clown, wave from a hot-air balloon, get picked up by a polar bear. Today I've managed to gain visibility and real weight in the lives of many Italians.

What is "Putti & Cherubini Spa"?

You'll see it in the show. It's a company "For love alone", a way of guaranteeing the Almighty an even stronger commitment on my part to the weakest among us.

How do you see Italian music today?

There's a bit of insecurity, compared to the Seventies. We've lost Lucio Battisti, Fabrizio De André, Lucio Dalla, Pino Daniele... colleagues who were a source of inspiration for young artists. I'm almost 67 and I'm still here with my enthusiasm intact, but their absence weighs on me.

Your first single, "Non basta sai", was produced by Gianni Boncompagni - what do you remember about him?

He was a force of nature, an innovator. He had flashes of insight, like me, like Nicoletta (Patty Pravo, editor's note) and many others.

Speaking of departed innovators, can you finally admit it: did David Bowie's glam phase influence you?

Well, everyone always says this thing… If a storm breaks out in Piazza del Popolo, everyone knows about it; if it breaks out in Roccasecca, nobody knows. The fact that I was Bowie before him is known by those who used to hang around with me in Piazza Navona. I appreciate Bowie a lot, but in those years that hedonistic quest, the idea of presenting yourself in the round, was in the air. Even among the hippies, not everyone was rolling joints, some were reading. I, on the other hand, preferred the guitar.

What was your goal, in the end?

All-round art — I even brushed up against Brecht with “Il Carrozzone”. And then leaving behind songs that would still sing out even twenty years on: from “Il Cielo” to “I migliori anni della nostra vita”, from “Amico” to “Più su” — in the end, I think I managed it. Because if you're just nailed down in the jukebox, where does that get you?

Of all these songs, is there one you feel is more yours than the others?

Yes, the next one.

(May 12, 2017)

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