Maurizio Merli

Meet Maurizio Merli from Milan, Italy.

I'm an italian student, aged 27, and I live in Milan. (Northern part of Italy, "Padania" as somebody says...).

I would like to tell you something about myself and my passion for America, those wonderful guys we know very well: Gerry and Dewey (and Brad, and Michael, and Willie, and Dan, and... you can well imagine!!) This is difficult because I want to concentrate into few lines over 10 years of my life I spent close to their music, and I need to remember so many moments, so many events, so many feelings I bound to their music... I will just tell you about a few important events of my life that are concerned to America:

First, I started playing acoustic guitar only to play America's music. Imagine the far 1986: I was 17, and a friend of mine played "Survival" with her guitar. We were sitting on the grass, since we were spending 3 days in the mountains. I had never heard about America since that moment. I loved that song. I asked her to play it once more, and again, and again (4 times at all!). Later my friends decided to play something else (I think Bruce Springsteen). I asked to my friend what kind of band could be America, but she said "I don't know. I just know this song, and I've never heard it directly: another friend taught me how to play it, because I loved this song immediately, as you do.

The day after I was in a music store, and I bought my first album "Alibi". Can you imagine that after a week I had bought all the America albums except "The last unicorn" and "Perspective"? For the following 2 years I didn't listen to any other music or band except Amrica, and I spent my nights playing my guitar and improving my style (almost poor, at the beginnig, of course, but not so bad now...). For my 18th birthday I asked for the chords and the lyrics, and I received "America complete", so playing became easier! (Not for all songs, however...).

And then came the dark. "What do you mean?" might be your thought... I mean that LPs soon disappeared, but no CDs appeared. I could not even find any other chords. I was quite sad... so I decided to write to the fan club... but I was so foolish!! I wrote (don't laugh, please) to "1500 cross roads of the world", because I read this address on the "History" LP. I didn't rtealize that, at the time I wrote my letter, it was 1990!!, 15 years had passed since the release of that album! But, you see, it was the only point for a contact, so I put my hopes into a letter and... I'm still waiting for an answer!! So I thought "Someday I will travel to the United States and I will try to find some more information...".

Two years ago I spent my holidays in England. One day I went in a Virgin megastore, and, as I always do, I went directly to the "A" section. So I saw "Homecoming", "History", "View from the ground" and... "Encore". I could hardly believe my eyes... My face became green! Four new songs! "So they're alive!!!". I bought it immediately (I was ready to pay 100 pounds for that CD, maybe 1000!), but I was not able to play it, because I had no CD players with me. You see: I've been waiting for almost 5 years.. I could wait two weeks more!!

Then happened the impossible. On my return to Italy I knew, in an almost incredible way (listening to some people I never knew during a travel by underground) that America was coming to Italy: three concerts at all in three cities: Brescia, Udine, and Padova (see this map of Italy to see how far these cities are from Milan). This is another story... (I had an exam at my University the day after the concert and I had almost to escape from my family to reach the concert, as it was in Brescia, 100 km. from my city)... I will probably tell you something about it another time.

I just want to tell you that I could shake their hands after the concert, and I could even talk to them. Using a never-before-so-excited English I told them that their music was fantastic, and I was very grateful to them for those 10 years I spent with them (though they could not know that!). Gerry smiled at me and said "Thank you!", and he was very glad to see that I had prepared an A4 photo for their autograph; then he said something I don't remember, but I laughed because I remember it was funny! Dewey was out in that moment (the guys were sitting around a table in a small room behind the scene), so I spent a couple of minutes talking with Brad about the concert...

I know I could keep writing forever! I'm very glad to join America's fans across the world. I also want to thank Steve very much for his Internet page. It was not so easy for me to write the lyrics by myself... many lines were blank because I could not understand their words... I thank Steve again, and I'm sure there are no errors in his work!.

Update: June 26, 1999

I'm still living in Italy, and I'm aged 30 (almost...)

I was in Augsburg for your wonderful concert on June 22. Great night! Yoou were fantastic as usual. Thank you for coming in Europe. I travelled for almost 900 km to see you, but I would have travelled even more!

I was just a little sad that night, due to the fact that Dewey "teleported" himself almost immediately to Munich (such in a Star Trek movie... "Beam me up, Scotty"!).

Anyway, Dewey, I thank you for all you have done in these years: writing songs, singing them and touring all over the world. Gerry, you were kind and nice as usual. I thank you once again for the photo, taken together with my future wife (Stefania), and the autograph. Thank you for the few words spent together: for me and Stefania is like a dream turned into reality.

I don't know how many fan of a music group can shake the hands of the artists they love: I often think to those concerts played into stadium, with thousands and thousands of people watching in a mega-video-screen, and I'm a little sad for them: a person is just a small point, smaller than a star in the sky, and maybe that person has grown with the music of the artist, has loved him and his music, but there is no human contact between them, except an exaltation given by the event (concert) itself. On the contrary, you play hundreds of concerts all over the world, you meet a lot of people, but you give the opportunity of establishing a human contact between you and the fan, and each fan, with his heart and emotions: photos, few words spent in our languages, or simply a glance during a song: these are the things that make you really special, really important in the life of - I suppose - all of your fans. The photo we took together is now standing in our bedroom among those of our friends. I thank you for that photo because it remembers me that moment our lives encountered for a while, showing me you are not just stars in the sky but real persons that sweat during the concert, get tired travelling by car in the night among the cities, but that are always kind, nice and ready to give a smile to people that has no words to tell you how much you are mportant in our lives.

Thank you for all... have a wonderful life.

Yours, through the years

Maurizio

Update: March 19, 2007

Steve,

I was reviewing my fan bio today and - gosh! - I realized I wrote it more than 10 years ago! Unbelievable! Seems like it was a couple of months ago.... Indeed in the meantime I got married, found a job (actually did some career...), had two kids... And the America are still there. The first songs I play on my guitar every time I take it out... Can youi magine? Horse with no name, Tin Man, Ventura Highway... And you probably know that they're coming to Italy (Milan) in two weeks. (I already have my two tickets!)

You did a great job with the website over these years, I really like it. I owe you a very special thank you ! I came in touch with a couple of America fans last year, who wrote me thanks to your website. It was a good experience. I'd like it to happen again.

Thanks again
All the best from Italy!

Maurizio

Feel free to send your comments or questions to Maurizio.