HELMUT LOTTI HUMO interview Part 6

 

 

 

Hi all!

We go on with the "finishing touch"!

HUMO: Will you take any steps to change your grey hairs?

Helmut: "No, do you know, I once really got a shock. I woke up and there happened to be no electircity in Merelbeke. I opened my roofwindow and made myself ready in the natural light. And what I happened to see in the mirror during that particular moment..
Normally I have really "softtone light" in my bathroom and every picture of me is prepared with "Photoshop". I still had the idea that I am a "young guest" and that I still am "Kuifje/Tintin in Operaland"! When I saw during that particular morning who I really was, I cried for 2 minutes. I am a kind of vain and I cry.

"You're so vain"/ Carly Simon

You walked into the party
Like you were walking onto a yacht
Your hat strategically dipped below one eye
Your scarf it was apricot
You had one eye in the mirror
As you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
They'd be your partner, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

You had me several years ago
When I was still quite naive
Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair
And that you would never leave
But you gave away the things you loved
And one of them was me
I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga
And your horse naturally won
Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia
To see the total eclipse of the sun
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with
Some underworld spy or the wife of a close friend
Wife of a close friend, and

You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Take it with a smile Helmut! I really am a "teasing girl" or?!

Helmut: These are real female qualities aren't they? That's what I mean, I don't know whether my gender is strong or weak, but I really am an emotional guy. The day before yesterday I happened to cry during the movie "Click". A comedy about a man who gets an "remote control" (TV) in his hands with which he is able to arrange his life. His wife enters and starts to "complain" about something, he pushes the volumebutton on zero and because her complaints do take so long, he pushes on "fast forward"!

HUMO: For a control freak the ultimate fantasy I guess.

Helmut: "It was fantastic. Everything he didn't appreciate, he fast forwarded. But towards the end of the movie, he missed many parts of his life. Life is a mixture of pleasant and less pleasant matters. This happened to be the message of this movie: if you can't handle the "shit", you better might not live. I guess this really is so very true, that I started to cry. That's also why I cried when I looked in the mirror, because I was confrontated with reality. Everyone is getting older, when it comes to this, life is fair. Everything goes by so very fast and glides like sand through our fingers and one isn't able to have a hold/grip on it. I took some tough decisions in my life and many didn't appreciate, the ones who were involved and the outside world."

HUMO: Yes, for someone who loves to have everything under control and who loves to keep things the way they are, you are quite well able to say goodbye..

Helmut: "Yes, when it comes to things that are essential for me to survive, like happiness and health, this is true."

HUMO: Your female pianist Tylaine Van den Broeck, is struggling with the wellknown dilemma that she loves her job, but also wants children.

Helmut: "For me women don't need to have this dilemma, to be of the same value/worth, doesn't mean that men and women have to do the same things. (I hope I translated well and that you're able to understand as this line was a kind of complicated to translate although I very well understand what Helmut means and I guess he's right..)

HUMO: But she doesn't want to miss the kick of being on stage. Men often don't have to make the choice between that kick or a child, they don't even know this dilemma.

Helmut: "Don't they? I would love to bring up my next child a little bit more. It isn't that nice for a man being away a week from home to notice after that week that your child constantly runs to her mother, because she knows her. I happened to talk today about this item with Kimberly (mother of Helmut's daughter). We had quite a good conversation."

HUMO: A "special kind of press" brought alarming news about her physical health and the use of drugs..

Helmut: "Well, this particular kind of press, she's doing fine at the moment. I am very happy, somehow during the last 6 months, everything seems to fit. I am very happy that I never listened to the so called wellmeant advices of people who told me that from now on I'd better only concentrate on the education of my daughter and nothing else. If my daughter thinks that her mother is the most important, then it's important that her mother is doing well. We really do have such a good contact by now and from now on my daughter will tell what she wants: "now I'd love to go to my father and now I don't want to."

HUMO: She follows an art-education?!

Helmut: "Yes, she really wanted to. I was happy with it. It's what I always wanted to do as well. Unfortunately the PMS (sorry I don't know this abbreviation, yes I know, but in a different (female) way!), decided that I was too smart for it. I still regret however.
My daughter is very well able to work with her hands. She is very good in modelling with clay and in painting. I guess that she'll find her way. She's of course in the luxurious position that I am her father and that I'll offer her the space to evolve emotionally until she finally finds that particular way."

HUMO: Does she like your newest album?

Helmut: "She listens to other kinds of music. She's 15: not the age where it's cool to love the music of Helmut Lotti. It already is a kind of hard for her to go outside with me! (smiles) But something seems to change. When she joins a live concert of me, again and again she's proud. And when she recently listened to "The Crooners" and in particular to song 5, "The most expensive girl", she said: "cool dad! It's almost similar as the music from the movie "Moulin Rouge"!
It's fantastic isn't?! Yes, she made my day!"
(it's funny Helmut, my (from today on) 15-years old daughter last week happened to see this particular movie and she loved it!)

 

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