Julio Iglesias Says He Can’t Retire and Live Without Music

MONTEVIDEO – Spanish singer Julio Iglesias said in an interview published by Uruguayan newspaper El Pais that he will not retire from music because “I would not know how to live without it.”

The performer, who during the course of his career has sold more than 300 million albums, also said that he is in the process of re-recording his biggest hits in digital format, something that he feels is “unbelievable” because of the ease and speed of working with the new technologies.

That album will be first of a series in which he takes a look at the length and breadth of his career, an experience that he said “enchanted” him.

“If I were modest, I’d be lying. But the truth is that it enchanted me. ... There is always something to live for, something to fight for,” Iglesias said.

The singer went on to say that only now does he consider himself “technically” to be a singer, and he admitted to a certain amount of “embarrassment” regarding some of the albums he released in the past.

“It’s an objective belief. Today, I listen to ‘La vida sigue igual’ as I recorded it four decades ago and it makes me feel a little embarrassed, but not the words. It’s an historic song for me,” the singer said.

Iglesias also said that he doesn’t feel that he is a person who was born to be an artist, adding that his work and his success were due to circumstances.

“My situation was an accident, I played soccer but I wasn’t good, I was rather bad. I studied law, but I didn’t like that either, and ... (then) I was given a guitar as a present. That changed my life. Later, I (entered) a music festival and won, and if it wouldn’t have been like that I wouldn’t have been a singer,” Iglesias said.

(Source: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=457940&CategoryId=13003)