Richard Benson, a historic rock singer and television personality from Rome, has died at the age of 67

Richard Benson, a Roman rock singer and guitarist best known for his television appearances that began in the 1970s and continued until recently, has died at the age of 67. He announced it on his official Facebook page, who wrote: «He fought like a lion once again against death and unfortunately he didn’t make it. He left us. The last time, however, he told us: “If I die, I die happy” ».

Benson had been an eccentric character capable of building a somewhat mysterious and controversial fame, ever since he began playing in the Roman circles of rock and progressive rock music of the seventies. There has always been a certain uncertainty about his origins, as his alleged British origins have never been very clear, although in more recent years various people close to him have confirmed that he was born in England and that his name was Richard Philip Henry John Benson. He began his career as a radio host initially, giving advice on new records in Renzo Arbore’s broadcast For you young peopleand then conducting various musical programs on Roman broadcasters, following Arbore also on TV interpreting the character of the “metalhead”.

In the following decades he continued to make music programs on radio and on TV, characterized by frequent outbursts and vulgarity, and also continued his career as a singer, performing for years in concerts in which he played a kind of caricature of the rocker: he became famous in particular to suffer from frequent throwing of objects and insults, in a dynamic that he encourages. In the last twenty years, he had added to television fame online fame, where he was the protagonist of a certain goliardic cult.