Vecchioni's moving remembrance of Guccini: "For me, he was the greatest singer-songwriter."

The day of Francesco Guccini's passing was also marked by the affectionate words of Roberto Vecchioni, who remembered his friend and colleague with whom he shared over half a century of music, encounters, and passions. For the Milanese singer-songwriter, there was no doubt: "For me, he was the greatest singer-songwriter."

Speaking to AGI, Vecchioni recalls his first meeting with Guccini, which took place at the 1973 Sanremo Music Festival. "Francesco and I met at Sanremo in '73, we both arrived very early. We sat in a bar and competed to see who could finish a bottle of wine first. He won. We shared a lot," he says.

The memory then shifts to 2018, when Guccini agreed to perform the song "Ti Insegnarò a Volare" with him. "It was hard to convince him. I went to Pavana, and then when he heard the song, he said, 'I'll sing about this,' because we connected," Vecchioni reveals.

The two also shared a relationship built on irony and mutual respect. "Amilcare Rambaldi introduced us. He said, 'I heard a beautiful song of yours, the one about the stadium and the football match,' mocking "Luci a San Siro." I replied, 'I've also heard the one about the train breaking down, and it's not bad.'"

Finally, the most intense tribute to the author of La locomotiva. "As a singer-songwriter, he leaves me a legacy of things he told me and failed to accomplish. I'll finish them for him. Francesco was a pioneer, a romantic attentive to the meaning of the little things in the world, a master of words and metaphors. He knew how to reach people with images capable of telling the truth. He was a seeker of truth. For me, the greatest singer-songwriter."