“No, she is the rock of the family, Daria, my wife.” When asked whether he had the feeling that he was the strong one at home, Roberto Vecchioni gave a decisive answer. We just saw him in tears on Massimo Gramellini's show on Saturday February 24th. In other words, he was moved when he spoke about the students who demonstrated for Palestine and were beaten by the police in Pisa. «Tears are an act I know, it has happened to me a million times in my life, for better or worse, listen to a song by Guccini or de André. There on TV, I felt a pang in my heart as I thought about the injustice of the world created and imagined by humans,” he explains. Last April, the loss of his bipolar son Arrigo, his 80th birthday in June, his return to Sanremo at the beginning of February with Alfa and the publication of his last book on February 27th: Between Silence and Thunder (Einaudi). in which he alternately writes 53 letters from a boy to his grandfather and that grandfather's letters to various historical and fictional figures. “The boy is me telling my life story, but the grandfather is also a part of me.” There are, among other things: the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis of the youngest son Edoardo, the crisis with his wife and the return of love, the operations, the old kidney tumor and the removal of the prostate two years ago. We decide to talk to the professor about it, who happily answers the phone.
Roberto Vecchioni, Between Silence and Thunder
Sanremo with Alfa, she is 80 years old, he is 20: what dialogue are you having with this generation?
«Andrea's father (De Filippi aka Alfa, editor's note) was a piano bar and always played many of my songs. When he expressed the desire to do a duet with me, I gladly accepted: “Dream Boy Dream” was the most suitable song to connect generations and pass on the baton of some values. I really liked this guy's character, I listened to him and understood that he was far from the insecurity of certain rap or indie singers: he was old-fashioned but with modern words. And dreams have no age.
She has four younger granddaughters. Do you define yourself as a current grandparent?
“Yes, absolutely, but I would rather say a grandfather who is madly in love and reciprocates. The first, twins, are 11 years old, then there is one who is 10 and another who is 6. In my opinion, they are very intelligent children: because intelligence is curiosity, wanting to know why one thing is there and another is there. The elders were enthusiastic about Greek myths and asked me to tell them about them because they knew I taught them. I explained them in a reduced, age-appropriate form, but not as a fairy tale: Above all, by introducing them into their lives, by explaining that these are things that can also be found in men today Life lessons. I ask: Would you act like Hector and Andromache? Like Prometheus or like Zeus?”
How much joy do they bring you?
“A lot. They're very different, they don't resemble each other physically or mentally. They have different styles, attitudes and tastes, a liveliness all their own. They're also very chaotic, but that's exactly why they're brilliant.”
At 80 you have already done everything and seen everything. What energy are we moving forward with?
«I'm telling the truth, I'm excited about everything. Each additional day is worth not one, but twenty additional days of life, in the sense of spirit, not time. I'm certainly feeling my age, but continuing to live means I can have other joys and build other memories.
Is there a thought that gets you out of bed?
“Today went well too, I woke up. I always start optimistically, I don't worry, I think about what I have to do if I have to visit someone. I have ten or twelve hours ahead of me to do something new.
He has written a new book: It tells of the cruelties of fate and the unpredictable moments of happiness, the ups and downs. Is there a letter that represents you the most?
“The boy in the book is thoughtful, sometimes lonely, humorous, satirical, he knows how to make fun of life.” But the letters with which I identify most are the ones that accuse myself: the letter , in which I describe my feelings of guilt for neglecting my son, obscured by the dream of the knight who wants to be killed. And then there are those in which I explain my duplicity: “Under the stage a normal person, afraid of making mistakes, but on the stage someone else, self-confident, carefree and in control of the world.”
In the book he tells you how you got a call from the hospital about Arrigo, who died in April. He told me years ago that he was bipolar, and even then he blamed himself. So are you still thinking?
«Less, in recent years I have been closer to him. But when he died, I must say that fate and his will coincided, there was no other way. The world did not notice his beauty, he should not have noticed the beauty of the world because to him it was ugly and therefore his decision is a decision that must be respected.
There is no word for someone who loses a child like “orphan” is for someone who loses their parents. How come?
“Because it is so bad and terrible that even the Greeks didn’t invent it. But “orphan” is also good for the parents. Although there is a difference. I'm sure a mother suffers more. My wife Daria was lost for ten months and became ill.
He writes: “One cries because it means life: keeping the storm inside is like leaving it to fate.” What is the difference between his pain and that of his wife?
“I feel terrible, I wake up at night, I dream about it, I think about it. Then there are times when it doesn't occur to me. For them, Arrigo is a fixed idea, he comes first and everything else happens underneath. So all it takes is a word, a gesture, a detail and everything comes back to me, she changes her face, you can see it.
Do you feel like the rock in the family?
“No, she was and remains the rock, Daria, despite everything. She is a fighter, an incredible woman, she has filled all the holes in my life.
