Son of the Guitar God

What would it be like to grow up as the son of Elvis Presley, or Bob Dylan, or David Bowie? How would the sheer star power of one’s superstar father impact your life? For Curro Sanchez, son of legendary Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia, the impact was surprisingly minimal. Sanchez was protected from the scrutiny of his father’s fame. Indeed, Lucia’s stardom was hidden in part from his own children. Celebrated for his incredible musical talent and compared to the likes of Mozart for his virtuous skill, Lucia was considered the world’s greatest flamenco guitarist for much of his career, and perhaps Spain’s greatest ever musical export. Lucia revolutionised the style, blending world influences into a cloistered Spanish art form and built a repertoire of dozens of albums, earning praise from the likes of Eric Clapton as a “Titanic figure in the world of flamenco”. Yet, Sanchez didn’t realise the enormity of his father’s career until his mid-20s. “It’s a normal thing – it’s something totally usual,” says Sanchez, on the line from Madrid. Of course, he knew his father was a musician of notoriety, but perhaps because of flamenco’s narrow (yet global) audience, he didn’t appreciate the gravity of the situation.

Paco de Lucia plays Entre dos Aguas with a full backing in 1976

This sheltering could also be attributed to Lucia’s own gentle demeanour. While his own father was a domineering individual who pushed Lucia to practice guitar all day every day as a child, Lucia took the opposite tack with his own kids.

“He was the opposite to his grandfather,” says Sanchez. “In his nature he only wanted to let people learn by themselves. He gave us freedom, and the benefit of the doubt.” Sanchez’ documentary Paco de Lucia: The Journey charts the flamenco virtuoso’s life, as an artist and a father. The project was born from a project Lucia gave to Sanchez as a young man, when he truly came to appreciate the Titanic musical figure his father was. “It wasn’t until I was 25 or 26 that I realised it,” he says. “My father asked me to make a small film to go with a new album he was releasing – something about 15 or 20 minutes long. When I was putting that together, it really hit me how important he had been.” With the private access only a orded to a family member, Sanchez says he was able to capture unique vision of Lucia’s life and those around him. “I recorded very special moments. Powerful interviews and family scenes that you could not really get access to if you were not me. I couldn’t leave them sitting in a hard drive. I had to make something more.” And so he did. Two years after his father’s death, Sanchez brings his award-winning documentary and testament to the life of Paco de Lucia to the Adelaide Guitar Festival. Paco de Lucia: The Journey Her Majesty’s Theatre Sunday, August 14 adelaideguitarfestival.com.au/events/paco-de-lucia-the-journey