by Renato Franco
The musician now runs a record label: “Three fantastic years, then darkness: I don’t even know how much money I wasted.” The abyss? The prison. We were best friends with Michael, but now we can't stand each other anymore. CPR saved me.”
We are republishing the interview with Stefano Righi dei Righeira from last January, one of the interviews most appreciated by our readers in 2023.
Stefano Righi and Stefano Rota. Two unknown but very famous people like Johnson and Michael Righeira, the couple who remained anchored in the bronze of the pop music era with two songs. From “Vamos a la playa” to “Summer is coming to an end”, an eternal parable that only lasted two seasons. At the high school in Turin, Stefano and Stefano go to school together, they become best friends, but today they no longer speak to each other. “Ex-punk, now sold” was the denigrating writing emblazoned on a wall, from which he made a music collection: Johnson Righeira, 62 years old, now has his own label, Kottolengo Recordings & Wines. Music and wine, another evergreen pair.
You were in high school together…
“After my first failure, I ended up in his class and we immediately became friends. Music was the glue.
Who did worse in school?
“Both. We even failed together. Or rather, Michael dropped out of the fourth grade twice. He transferred and went to the master's program in order to be accepted directly into the senior year, but the unthinkable happened and he was practically in the third year of high school banished: “I think he's the only one in the world to whom something like this has happened.”
How to get from Righi to Righeira
“I was in my first year of high school, I didn’t know Michael yet. We had a teacher from the 1968s who just made us play soccer and for fun we changed our last names in the Brazilian style. As a first name, however, I was looking for something similar to Hamilton Bohannon, one of the key figures in disco music and an idol of mine. Johnson Righeira had to be a native in my head, the first biographies said I was abducted by aliens and mysteriously reappeared years later; I dreamed of palm trees, I had tropical but also technological images in my head.
The imagery of “Vamos a la playa”, year 1983…
“This song is in every way the evolution of the first things I wrote, inspired by the '60s, as the self-sufficient and futurist I felt like.” Vamos a la playa was a beach song, but post-nuclear, it imagined an apocalyptic scenario of bombs, radiation and polluted seas. The La Bionda brothers became our producers, they took us under their wing and recognized the potential of the song. However, my version was much darker, new wave, very dark, the idea was the contrast between going to the beach and the bombs exploding; They made it much brighter, so much so that the lyrics were not talked about for many years, no one paid attention to them, they were overshadowed by the melody.
An overwhelming success, but in the meantime you did your military service.
“In fact, it is a success that we did not enjoy. In fact, it was psychologically devastating because even though we were first in the rankings, we had to stay in the barracks. I used the licenses to make the first televised films. In the middle of the summer, when the song was at the top of the hit, I lost my temper and checked myself into neurosurgery to recover from the classic depressive crisis. I identify them as a sliding door in my life because in the beginning they sent me back to the barracks; However, I stopped the civil psychologist in the hallway: I asked him if he knew Vamos a la playa and told him that I needed 20 days to prepare for the Festival Bar finale. A captain came and showed me with great praise that the military was a serious matter. But he gave me 20 days. And I understood that something has changed.
“The Summer Is Ending” (1985) appeared before the summer, a contradiction…
“In fact, the record company was worried, they were afraid that people would take this inconsistency badly, but no summer song could be released in September!” It went well because then we won the festival bar.”
How did you experience this sudden surge in popularity?
“With extreme ruthlessness: I didn't have a cent left and could take planes and taxis without thinking, I could choose the most beautiful hotels, I lived in residences. I wasted a lot of money.
How much did he waste?
“I don’t have the slightest idea, also because I don’t even know what I earned.”
Three fantastic years and then?
“Sanremo 1986 was brutally our swansong, we finished among the last. We were amazed there, we weren't used to it. We had created a reputation for churning out catchphrases, which was what they expected of us, but we were more performers and situationists than musicians. We had delusions and pressures that we couldn't handle easily. We got caught in a negative vortex that gradually made us give up.
How did you experience the transition from boom to normality?
“With the same ruthlessness and composure. I was never idle, then came the 80s revival and with it the awareness that I had shaped a historical period in Italian pop music.”
Did you feel misunderstood?
“In the beginning we were snubbed and seen as two idiots, both personality-wise and musically. The music critics were trashing us and I was in big trouble, this thing really pissed me off. I don't want to sound presumptuous, but we were ahead.
In 1993 you were arrested along with 37 other people for drug trafficking. He remained in prison for five months but was then completely acquitted.
“I was pushed into the middle because the usual local news that they had arrested a drug dealer with my name became nationally important. The world around me collapsed, I experienced five months of shit in which I was afraid they would judge me. I saw everything black.
The 1990s were characterized by separations and reunions. The Righeira was finally closed in 2016.
“There was a progressive estrangement with Stefano, which culminated in an argument that sanctioned the separation. I continued to spend evenings alone and we didn't speak for a long time.
The latest argument?
“A disagreement due to a progressive increase in incompatibility, nothing concrete, but we couldn't stand each other anymore.”
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January 5, 2024 (modified January 5, 2024 | 06:42)
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