The musician talks about his break with the singer-songwriter whom he accompanied on stage for forty years and opens the door to reconciliation: «Joaquín and I have been more than brothers. I would like you to miss me at some point.”
His thing lasted much longer than two icefish in a whiskey with ice. Theirs lasted forty years, a hundred songs composed hand in hand and unforgettable glory nights in which Pancho Varona (Madrid, 1957) was the most faithful squire of Joaquín Sabina, the Sancho Panza from Quixote from Jaén, his lieutenant ‘Panchito’, always to the right of the father on stage. Until, on November 15, heartbreak arrived in the form of a tweet. A blow with which Varona announced that Sabina had decided ‘against all odds’ to do without him during her tour. Arguably one of the most traumatic divorces in Spanish music history, from which this “rebellious guitarist”
-Do you know that the Sabinero world has closed its heart to demolition since that unfortunate November 15?
– (Laughs) Yes, I have received many loving messages that spoke of many people’s heartbreak, but I don’t know much about that. The only thing Joaquín told me is that he wasn’t going on tour and I’ve told people, but I don’t have much more information.
-Speculations are unleashed and there are theories for all tastes. Some people attribute the break to Leiva’s strong influence, to Jimena’s (Sabina’s wife’s) ruthless veto, to the discord between the members of the Sabinera band, to their new manager… Can you clarify something for us?
-Gossip. Leiva has nothing to do with this. And neither does my manager. I still don’t really know what happened. I hope it will be explained to me one day, but I still don’t know what the reason is.
-In fact he just told that he went to his house to try to clear it up and he didn’t even receive it. Was it so?
-Yes. Last year I tried to get closer to visit them and chat with them, but I couldn’t.
-She?
-Yes. She. With Jimena, with Joaquin. But they didn’t want to. So in the end I had to email them because they told me to write to them instead of talking to them.
– Strong, right?
It depends who’s watching it. I think it’s very strong, but I imagine it seems normal to them.
-And how do you feel, do you hold a grudge against them?
-No no no. I am happy and happy with my new life. I almost came out of that story strengthened, because I suddenly received a lot of love from people. You can’t imagine. I got a huge energy boost and I continue to travel, which is one of the things I like the most: I just came back from New York, I’ve been to Seville, now I’m going to Oviedo… So I think : «If that is the bad, my God of my life, how will the good be?».
-However, he threatened to score a Shakira…
– (Laughs) Oh, no. That was a joke that a lot of people took for what it was, something funny, and they laughed a lot. Only two or three said, “Wow, how hateful, how bad.” It’s just that some have a very weak sense of humor. I was just trying to downplay the matter with the best of intentions.
-At least tell me we can expect a reconciliation and see them on stage together again.
That doesn’t depend on me either. What do you want me to tell you, what do I want? Naturally. I still have a lot of love for that repertoire, for those forty years of my life, for Joaquín… I wish that would happen, but it’s not up to me.
-There are people who think that Úbeda’s concerts will never be the same again. You too?
-I just hope someone misses me a little. Even Joaquín himself, who misses me at one point, remembers me… It’s just that there has been a lot of affection. We’ve been more than brothers for years. Sometimes I’ve been his little brother and sometimes his big brother. That’s why it’s strange for me not to know what happened, because the reasons they gave me were very vague. But hey: beautiful things are coming, concerts, tours, beautiful lives to live.
In fact, he claims that he is living a second youth and that he has a lot to do.
-Complete. In fact, I am seizing this second youth to give my concerts the final push, to travel a lot. And if I can’t travel that much, I’ll consider going back to the recording studio and composing again. I have planned everything pretty well if luck and form are with me.
After these four decades, do you regret anything when you look back?
-I regret not composing more songs in recent years. I could have done it, but I got lazy because of the travelling. And that you left the musical production a little aside. Studying never caught my attention, but I was good at it.
-Speaking of production, Joaquín’s records with Fito Páez and Alejo Stivel motivated the few disagreements they had throughout their careers. Was there jealousy on your part?
-What happened was that Joaquín wanted to make a record with Alejo and I got jealous at first, but then I understood and nothing happened.
-You told him for years to record in his hoarse voice, without much retouching, to no avail…until Stivel arrived.
-Yes. Antonio (García de Diego) and I told him and he didn’t pay much attention to us. And suddenly Alejo arrived and he did. But these are things that happen. And with Fito, the same. Over the years you see everything from a different angle. You think, “It’s okay. It’s normal. Everything is okay.” In any case, I always think I brought the best of Sabina. Fito’s album isn’t bad, ‘La orquesta del Titanic’ with Serrat and Javier Limón isn’t bad… but I got the best of it: ‘This mouth is mine’, ‘Me, me, I, with you ‘, ‘White lies’, ‘Physics and chemistry’, ‘The man in the gray suit’, ‘Tell me on the street’… The best.
Source: La Verdad
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