Ney Matogrosso was Rita Lee and Roberto de Carvalho’s ‘cupid’: ‘I already knew who he wanted’

Ney Matogrosso was the name honored in the High hours last Saturday, 25. In the program, he played The bandit Corazón with Roberto de Carvalhoand remembered the special story surrounding this song: it was thanks to this song that Ney brought Roberto and Rita Lee.

The bandit Corazón it was composed by Rita for Ney. According to him, after seeing the new arrangement, the singer wanted to meet the guitarist, Roberto de Carvalho. “I was doing a show at a place called Beco, there in Sao Paulo, and Roberto was still playing with me,” he recalled. “It was already like that, at the time of the transition, I had already recorded ‘Bandido’, but I was still with the previous band.”

“Rita went to see [o show], invited me to dinner at his house and said I could bring someone. I already knew who he wanted me to bring. I really knew it. And I got it,” she said.

“It was instant, the two of them got together, sat down at the piano and just stood there, the two of them, playing the piano, started composing. Then I said, ‘Well, I think I’m left here, right?’ . I went anyway, left them there, and that was it, and there the story took the path that everyone knows and I’m very proud that it did.”

Rita and Roberto’s version

In an interview with Fantastic After Rita’s wake, Roberto detailed the night Ney “brought together” the two at her request. “He said, ‘I really wanted this moment to come so we could meet, make music.’ From then on, the guests left and when we saw it, it was just the two of us,” she said. “We continued the night upstairs. Passion revealed itself in its most splendid, spectacular, loving form and we have never been apart since.”

In her autobiography Rita described her impressions of the musician, with whom she would remain married for more than forty years. “The cat, in addition to being beautiful, fragrant and an excellent guitarist, was also an excellent pianist. Love at the first key…”, wrote the singer.

Roberto and Rita Lee were together from 1976 until his death in 2023.

Source: Terra