Vasco: “They spit on me in the street. I was the drug addict”

“They spat on me in the street. I was the drug addict. The scapegoat of the early 80s. The one directly responsible for the spread of drugs because, according to them, my songs encouraged drug use. And for decades they held it against me, something that only happens in Italy: no one would allow themselves to be treated like drug addicts, say, Paul McCartney or Keith Richards”: thus Vasco Rossi in a long interview granted to Corriere della Sera. The rocker opens his heart to the Milanese newspaper when there are just over two months left before the seven shows that will keep him busy at the San Siro from 7 to 20 June. And remembering his beginnings, he also talks about the prejudices against him:

Nantas Salvalaggio led the way, hurling an article full of insults at me in Oggi; I still have the letter my mother wrote to him to defend me. Once in Rimini, when they saw me, they denied me the hotel room I had booked. So I waited for dawn on the Riccione seafront and wrote “Yesterday I slaughtered my son”.

On his relationship with substances, the rocker added:

I could go three days without sleeping, thanks to the amphetamines. Then I realized that amphetamines are dangerous. I experienced my psyche, I entered my mind, I took a journey inside my consciousness. I have tried almost all drugs, except heroin. Putting heroin on the same level as marijuana is criminal, because this way kids convince themselves that they are the same, and if the dealer doesn't have one, then they can buy the other.

In the interview Vasco did not fail to remember his first time at San Siro, in 1990. Before him, among Italian singer-songwriters, Edoardo Bennato had performed at San Siro in 1980:

It was a turning point for our music. Previously we sang in the squares, in sports halls, or on the curve of a stadium. The stadiums were filled only by foreigners who came once every ten years: Bob Marley, Madonna. I demonstrated that even an Italian could do it. A three-storey stadium: they had just built the third tier for the World Cup; 75 thousand people.

Vasco also commented on the legend of the rivalry with Ligabue:

No rivalry. A newspaper montage.

And about the new generations:

Ghali hit the mark in Sanremo, singing first in Arabic then in Italian. Mahmood is a little genius. In general, new things always intrigue me. My favorite is Madame. She has the same genuineness as Carmen Consoli. I also like Levante and Marracash.