Six months ago they were still brotherly side by side when a plaque was unveiled in The Hague, near where Ferdi (65) and Rob Bolland (67) grew up. The brothers were proud of this gesture by the municipality. ‘Now our grandchildren and their progeny always have something to go back to,’ Rob and Ferdi said. ‘We have earned this nicely together.’ There was no more arguing.
bloated story
In Austria there was already a clash when Rob had changed lyrics into songs with his own hands, much to Ferdi’s dissatisfaction. But the bomb really exploded for Ferdi when Rob told the media that he was not allowed to participate in the AVROTROS program Best Singers because he is terminally ill. A story that, according to Ferdi, has come out of the blue. ‘It’s such an inflated story,’ Ferdi tells Story. ‘Made for jealous reasons and solely because he doesn’t want it on me. The story is completely different from what he told it. I do participate in Best Singers. I have been talking about this with the production for years, even in the period that Rob and I had no contact with each other. After all, Rob also did projects solo, just like me. There was nothing strange about that. I discussed that with both Rob and his manager and said that joining together was not a good idea.’
Jealous-brother-action
Ferdi continues: ‘After that I heard nothing more and I thought Rob had resigned himself. Also because he had come up with another idea: a documentary about us together. I really liked that and wanted to participate in it. And suddenly Rob brought out the story that he was not allowed to participate because he is terminally ill… It’s an old-fashioned jealous-brother action. He just can’t take it. He grants me nothing, I grant him everything.’
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Image: Peter Smulders
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