The Italian singer, sugar, is inseparable from titles like Dance or Without a woman in duet with Paul Young who has just celebrated his 30th birthday. After almost 40 years of career, the musician with the hat offers us a Deluxe version of his album D.O.C plus 6 unreleased tracks including a duet recorded with Sting called September and an announced tour.
Elodie Suigo: In all these projects, what is quite incredible is this love that you have for the craft, for the creation of the song.
Sugar: It’s true, I grew up in the countryside. My family was made up of farmers so my roots run very deep. They are really rooted in the countryside, in this land. I am not a city rat. I speak very often of the small world, of this small-scale world, of small size, Why? Because I was born into a family of Italian partisans and of course I heard what my grandmother was saying at the time, my grandparents who told me about that time during the war. I was rocked by all this and I lived in a way this conflict between the Church on the one hand, therefore this church which was in front of the house where I was going to play the organ, moreover, and then on the other hand the breath, the revolutionary spirit with communist hints which were also present at that time. It was a bit like Don Camillo and Peppone!
You have the impression of seeing your parents and your grandfather. It is because you love this family that gave you this education. Isn’t she your greatest strength? Know where you are from. You really wanted to look like your grandfather when you were little with his hats, he wore the hats very well. He had a lot of charisma.
Yes. Indeed, little one, I saw this man with his beard, his round glasses and then the brown hat! He was very charismatic. For me, he was a hero with this charisma you said, this wisdom too, he was someone I wanted to emulate. That’s why I’ve always had a weakness for hats.
You are nicknamed by the Anglo-Saxons, The Italian mad Hatman, that is to say the crazy Italian singer with the hat. Since you were eight you have been singing. How do you see this course?
When I was little, my dream was to be able to make a record and live well from this profession as a musician.
It’s an incredible journey. I had no intention or idea at all of going to concerts in stadiums, of going around the world. When the success came instead of being hyper-happy and well, I had a depression because I just couldn’t handle all the pressure and also having to demonstrate why I had achieved such success. And when you’re someone rather simple like me, I have a rather lonely temperament, it’s still a walk! Okay now I got used to it!
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