Jussi Niemi toured together with Matti Nykänen for years – “Many didn’t realize what kind of hell he had to live in” –

The late ski jumping legend Matti Nykänen is known not only for his sporting achievements and the twists and turns of his private life, but also for his memorable statements.

Many of them are also remembered by Nykänen’s long-time friend and credit guitarist, musician Jussi Niemi. Niemi was involved when people’s sports favorite started to be made into an artist.

– Basically, Matti was terribly timid and shy. Especially the first gigs were such that he mostly stood behind my back, Niemi recalls.

He tried to encourage Nykä to even say the name of the upcoming song before playing, but the artist was very reluctant.

– Then we started with the idea that if he couldn’t get anything else to say out of excitement, I asked how is Matti doing?

– That’s what Matti said: “Everything goes as it comes.”

I think the witty answer made the audience laugh. Sometimes the answer to the same question changed to another form: “Everything goes, what is put forward.”

– We had these two openings. Then Matti warmed up a bit and could start babbling. At that point, when he got excited to talk, there was no stopping it.

According to Nieme, this is what the audience wanted to hear at Nykänen’s concerts. They asked questions and were thirsty for life wisdom – a kind of stand-up comedy between songs. In the end, however, according to Nieme, Nykänen loved being in front of the audience, despite the ramp fever.

– Matti was one of the most sincere people I know, too honest. It wasn’t a bad point, but it was easy to exploit. He was an honest guy.

Niemi describes Nykänen’s popularity at the time as absurd. Everywhere Matti Nykänen went, he was followed by a crowd of people, and not everyone who wanted to was able to enter the gigs.

– It has always annoyed me that not many people perhaps realized how profound a person Matti was and what kind of hell he had to live in, Niemi regrets.

He knows how to tell from joint trips to gigs that in the early days of his career as an artist, Nykänen drove himself to all the gigs. At that time, according to Nieme, they did about two hundred gigs every year.

– Matti was significantly more relaxed and better after a couple of fights.

However, the alcohol-fueled headlines had left an impression on the citizens.

– Matti was clear at the gig and started to drive home, then a couple of ladies came from there and said, “Oh good time, Matti left by car. You can’t drive drunk.”

Niemi told the lady that he has a driver’s license.

– It was so etched in people’s minds that Matti couldn’t drive a car, that it’s in Känen, Niemi times.

Matt’s consent

The flying utterances of the legend live on in the stories of loved ones and Finns, but today also in the story about Nykänen’s life Life is laiffii – in the musical play. Niemi says that they already had time to talk about something similar together with Nykänen.

Matti Nykänen died in February 2019. He was 55 years old when he died. The musical play named after his hit song has been seen in previous years in Nykänen’s birthplace in central Finland, but this fall it will go on tour around Finland.

– Of course, Matti would not have been involved in this, but he had clear consent. He might not have been ready to play himself on stage in that way.

The role of Nykänen will be played by actor Tatu Mönttinen. This is not the first time for him either, as he has previously made a monologue about Nykä, which started at the urging of a friend.

– Before that, my image of Mati was quite one-sided. I knew about his sporting achievements and the stories in the Seiska magazine.

– When I started reading books, watching videos and documentaries, a kind of Matti that I was not familiar with started to emerge. There you could see a sensitive and shy Matti who may have been used by others, Mönttinen tells Iltalehte.

To the present Life is laiffii -music play, Mönttinen has brought the deeper side of Mati that manifested itself during his monologue project.

Last year, Mönttinen was in front of the audience in the role of Nykänen at Hippos in Jyväskylä. Matti Nykänen would have turned 60 in the summer, and at the end of the show, together with the audience, a congratulatory song was sung for him. Nykänen was also among the audience Pia-widow.

– It was really nice when he said that sometimes he messed around and checked that it was the real Matti. At least I’m doing something right, that it’s a credible Matti, Mönttinen states.