It was truly a great honor to have the opportunity to interview the tireless Bobby Solo, who performed in Cles on Sunday, June 21st at 3:00 PM in the garden of the Santa Maria Retirement Home. The concert was part of the “Festa della Musica,” an annual event organized by the Municipality of Cles in collaboration with other local organizations and associations.
Bobby was truly helpful and kind during this brief but intense interview, which he gave exclusively to our newspaper . Despite his age (81), he is a very youthful person, with an incredible passion for music that shines through in his every word and movement, like the consummate stage animal that he is.
- Bobby, you’ve played everywhere, and your audiences now include people of all ages, and among them, your die-hard fans are certainly the older ones, who have followed you since the beginning. My question is: have you performed in facilities like this again, or is this your first time in a nursing home ?
Bobby replies : “I sang in a retirement home in Milan 4 years ago, doing rock ‘n’ roll; 80-year-old ladies dancing with the nurses… I’ve been lucky enough to sing my Italian songs for 60 years, and then to do gospel, rock, blues, jazz, country, so it’s not a unique program but a very varied one; doing rock and blues appeals to kids from 25 to 50, doing ‘Lacrima’ (on the face), ‘Se piangi, se ridi’, ‘Non c’è più niente da fare’ from 50 to 90, so two audiences.”
- When I was little, my parents bought the 45 rpm record of ‘Una lacrima sul viso’, and it got worn out from listening to it so much, but which song are you most fond of?
Bobby : “’Lacrima’ is a song that has given me 12 million copies sold all over the world, I recorded it in French, Spanish, English, German, (and I pronounce the titles in all these languages) so ‘Lacrima’ is my ‘greatest’ song, but as a preference, in country style I like ‘Non c’è più niente da fare’ ”.
