11. The DoorsThe Doors
As I didn’t grow up with a lot of music and records were scarce, MTV kind of ruled my life for a long time because my Dad wanted to have [Italian channel] Rai Uno and he had this really embarrassing, gigantic satellite dish on our house that was almost enough to tip the building over! But without him knowing about it we got MTV and I would stay up every night watching Alternative Nation. I remember seeing Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and my jaw just dropped, like a lightning bolt hitting me, and then The Doors were the same. They were showing music videos with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison [from the 1991 Oliver Stone film The Doors]. I loved the movie as a kid, but watched it again the other day and it really wasn’t how I remember it! But it had a profound effect on me, because I was like "That’s how I want to be! I want to be completely messed up and fat in a bath with a beard" [laughs]. But it was the realisation that there’s this really exciting world out there. I grew up in quite a strict family and music has always been a way out for me, a chance to be free and to be my own person, and this record especially will always be one of my favourite albums because of that.
