Sir Oliver Skardy: “I, from king of reggae to janitor”

In 1997 he released his last album with Pitura Freska, with whom he rocked the Sanremo Festival that year by competing with “Papa nero” (“Will it be true? / After Miss Italia, having a black pope? / No me par vero”). In 2021, however, his latest solo album, “Figa e sfiga”. What happened to Sir Oliver Skardy, stage name of Gaetano Scardicchio, the iconic “king of Italian reggae”? In an interview granted to Corriere della Sera, the 66-year-old Venetian singer talked about his new life as a janitor in a high school in Venice, the artistic Guggenheim in Campo dei Carmini:

Schei old man, necessity. I only had an artistic diploma which is of no use if you don’t move forward. Without a degree I couldn’t be a professor. But better this way, less mess. I don’t even know how much I get exactly, I never check the account. Anyway, a pittance. And the earnings as a musician are also a pittance. I put one and one together and the result is complete misery.

Of the money he earned with Pitura Freska, at the height of their success in the 90s, he says:

Divided among everyone there is little left. In the end I managed to get a small 60 square meter apartment in Marghera.

Sir Oliver Skardy says he never left his job as a janitor, not even in his Pitura Freska days:

In those years the music wasn’t bad but it wasn’t doing great either and I felt it could end. Pitura Freska were divisive, contested, they either loved us or hated us. Then came Sanremo, ‘a beautiful carousel, we thought: here either we enter the kingdom or they kick us out. They kicked us out: fourth to last. Black Pope was not understood. They called us a satanic rock band while the message was anti-racist.

Pitura Freska disbanded in 2002:

One wanted to play trumps, another at tressette, still another at scopa… and the score had become too small to contain everyone’s ideas. Cristiano (Verardo, the guitarist, ed.) works on boats, Duse (Francesco, the other guitarist, ed.) does various odd jobs, Valerio (Voleno Silvestri, trumpet, ed.) has a restaurant, Furio (Marco Forieri, ed.) who was on sax is the only one who still plays, Ciuke (Francesco Casucci, bass, passed away in 2008, ed.) peace be upon his soul.