Pancho Varona: "Sabina's musicians told him: either Pancho or us"

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Pacho Varona ends up crying

at the end of the interview.

He is sitting in the most impersonal and nondescript place in Western Europe, a chain coffee shop in a posh shopping center at 11 in the morning, but there has been nothing poetic

either , which is what it is about. .

They were 40 years and more than 500 nights of alliance that ended last November and that the guitarist, singer, composer and producer reviews in the series of podcasts 'Behind, with a revolver', from Sonora.

It is the first time that he talks about his separation.

oaquín Sabina begins her tour in two weeks and it will be the first since 1982 in which you do not participate, how do you feel? I feel good, really.

When he sent me the email informing me of my dismissal, I posted a statement on social networks and received a flood of affection that you can't even imagine.

There were thousands of messages of love, support, solidarity, and that gave me a lot of strength.

I got a shot of energy and now I'm having a very nice moment, with many personal projects and ideas.

Of course it's going to give me a pang in my heart when Joaquín takes the stage the first day without me, after 40 years, but I'm really fine. What was that email like? It was an email of eight or 10 lines .

I had sent Joaquín an email before because he had been trying to go to his house for the whole of 2022 and I was not received, I don't know why.

I insisted: 'What's up?

When can I come to see you?'

But they were all excuses until one day they told me: 'Look, it's not good for us to see you, send us an email'.

I was stunned.

I spent a few days thinking about that email and when I sent it to him I got naked.

I told them: 'Look, I get the impression that something is happening that is getting out of hand.

Please, let's get together at your house with the band, since there has been a bad vibe with them, we fix it and give each other a few hugs.

We are family, I love you very much, don't leave me out, I want to continue being part of your house and your tours and your life, etcetera, etcetera'.

A very affectionate email.

A month later Jimena answered me saying that he was off the tour, that they didn't count on me, that... Anyway, I don't want to give more details,

but there was no reason for that decision.

What's more, if they had accepted that reunion I was asking for, with or without a band, and Joaquín would have told me: 'Look, Panchito, it's been 40 very nice years, but ours is over.'

I would have given him a hug, I would have told him, 'okay, man, I understand, it hurts, but I understand'. which has nothing to do with my problems with the band.

And at the end of that email he wished me luck and that's it.

I freaked out, I didn't understand anything.

Were they musical motifs?

I would have told him, 'okay, man, I understand, it hurts, but I understand'. No argument. Three vaguenesses that I am not going to detail, one referring to social networks... but he tells me that it has nothing to do with my problems with the band.

And at the end of that email he wished me luck and that's it.

I freaked out, I didn't understand anything.

Were they musical motifs?

I would have told him, 'okay, man, I understand, it hurts, but I understand'. No argument. Three vaguenesses that I am not going to detail, one referring to social networks... but he tells me that it has nothing to do with my problems with the band.

And at the end of that email he wished me luck and that's it.

I freaked out, I didn't understand anything.

Were they musical motifs?

Well, I don't know because there is no explanation, I think it has nothing to do with that.

In fact, it hurts me a lot to say that Leiva had something to do with it, my poor thing.

Everything that has been said is very unfair, nothing has had anything to do with him. What was the problem you had with the rest of Sabina's group? We had a group when Joaquín did not perform, the Sabinera Nights, and I also I had another

and I had my life and my personal career with different agendas.

I worked half the month on my projects and the other half with the band, but they started asking me to give up part of my time and to be with them more, I told them no and that they could work even without me those days.

All this was straining the relationship at the concerts.

There came a time when we started to argue, in the dressing room I saw that there were four people against me.

They decided to break the relationship, send a statement to the networks and announce that they were still without me and that I was going my way, letting it be seen that it was my fault.

But they were the ones who decided to break up and go on without me.

In my email to Joaquín I also offered to apologize to the band if necessary, because I'm always going to try to fix the relationship.

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But it gives the impression that the relationship is completely broken, that it is irreversible. For my part, there is a possibility, but he made it clear to me that everything was over, and when I say everything is everything.

This tour, the upcoming tours and the personal relationship, I just don't understand! When was the last time you saw each other? I saw him around June 2021 at his house for a problem that is irrelevant .

We hugged at the end and Joaquín told me: 'Great, Panchito, we're going to go on tour together again next year.'

That was the last time I saw him.

Before I went to see him in the pandemic and they kicked me out of his house, in a good tone, uh, for fear of the virus.

Later I wanted to see him, but he has not received me. Do you feel betrayed? No, I feel perplexed because I don't know what happened.

In theory, the problem with the band has not had to do.

In theory.

Because a person very close to him told me that Joaquín's musicians were at his house and told him: either Pancho or us.

Antonio García de Diego denies it.

I don't know who to believe. Antonio García de Diego is Sabina's other historical collaborator and with whom you have worked for four decades, what relationship do you have with him? Very little.

We congratulate each other on his birthday on WhatsApp, little else.

I think Antonio, if he really loved me, he could have done something more for me to be on tour, honestly.

It is not a reproach, but I have broken my mouth for him many times and I will continue to break it as many times as he needs to when he needs it.

It has been 40 years of being with Joaquín Sabina as his right hand in all aspects, professionally and personally. We have been brothers.

We have been united in everything

at the funeral of his father and mother, at my mother's.

He is my daughter's godfather.

We have lived together, we have cried together and we have done everything together.

Would you do everything the same again? Exactly the same.

I haven't lost an ounce of affection for Joaquín and I've been loving him all my life like a brother and like a genius, talking wonderful things about him everywhere, to my friends, to the press... Don't you regret it? You're welcome? I don't regret anything, I would do it again and I'm going to continue doing it unless Joaquín suddenly starts releasing things that I don't like.

And that they hurt me, of course.

Then I will have to defend myself. As the author or co-author of numerous songs and producer of 15 albums, how is the situation financially? I'm fine, I'm fine, yes.

I have my copyrights and my royalties from record sales,

not only for Joaquín's but for all my work.

Joaquín has always been generous with me.

I'm not a millionaire, but I live well.

I wish all musicians lived like me. Have you seen

, the documentary by Fernando León de Aranoa? No, I was not invited to the premiere.

It's funny because I and Fernando León de Aranoa always had a wonderful relationship, we loved each other very much and I have collaborated a lot on the documentary for 15 years.

He asked me for many things and I always tried to help him.

And suddenly he ignores me like that, and doesn't even explain why he didn't invite me.

Weeks later, Fernando told me that there was a screening for the press, but I told him better not.

It hurt me that they didn't invite me to the premiere because I hadn't done anything to Fernando.

And if Joaquín didn't want me to be near him, damn it, send me to row 40, but invite me.

The other day it appeared on the cover of Movistar and I changed it quickly.

It hurt me. When you shared the message announcing the break, in November, it is clear that it was not something "

against all odds", as you wrote using a play on words with the title of Sabina's tour. Man, when they put me off and didn't let me go to their house to see them, I started to think 'something is wrong here', but in the In the background I always believed: 'No matter how much he's going through, he can't leave me out of his last tour.' I couldn't imagine that, because there was no single reason for him to fire me, but a week before he sent me his email I saw that the guitarist Borja Montenegro posted on Instagram that he was part of Joaquín's new tour... They had given him your job. Exactly. That Borja is my friend and he didn't notify me either. It's just one thing, and another, and hell, I I thought, 'what's happening, what have I done to them? Have I killed Kennedy?'

No one has shown their face.

How is it possible that without me being fired you officially put another guitarist?

We were friends, we were friends.

I don't understand why they do all this... I'm telling you many things that I might regret seeing them written down later.

I don't know, I'm an honest guy, I'm a guy who stands up for his friends, but my friends haven't stood up for me.

They have preferred to take care of his work or his prestige than to stand up for me.

There they.

I'm always going to receive them with a hug because I'm an asshole (laughs), but I'm going to do it, if Joaquín comes, how can I not give him a hug?

I will and I will cry.

but my friends have not given it for me.

They have preferred to take care of their work or their prestige than to stand up for me.

There they.

I'm always going to receive them with a hug because I'm an asshole (laughs), but I'm going to do it, if Joaquín comes, how can I not give him a hug?

I will and I will cry.

but my friends have not given it for me.

They have preferred to take care of their work or their prestige than to stand up for me.

There they.

I'm always going to receive them with a hug because I'm an asshole (laughs), but I'm going to do it, if Joaquín comes, how can I not give him a hug?

I will and I will cry.

And he ends up crying, apologizing, laughing.

"Damn, at the end I have shed tears."

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