During the second half of the 1960s, Schifano oscillated between painting, film, and music. Through his ex-girlfriend, Anita Pallenberg, who was dating Keith Richards at the time, he became acquainted with the Rolling Stones. The British band frequently visited his home in Rome. This encounter left its mark: While vacationing on the Amalfi Coast in 1969, Mick Jagger and Richards wrote the song “Monkey Man,” a tribute to Schifano that appears on the Rolling Stones’ album Let It Bleed. Lines such as “I’m a cold Italian pizza” and “All my friends are junkies” ironically reflect the wild, drug- and excess-fueled lifestyle that the artist shared with the rock stars during those years.
Legendary is also Schifano’s artistic collaboration with the band named after him, Le Stelle di Mario Schifano, founded in 1967. As part of the cultural underground, the band was one of the first in Italy to devote itself to psychedelic music. Their sole album, Dedicato a..., was released in 1967 by the Milan-based label BDS. Schifano designed the cover and booklet—naturally featuring his signature stars, to which the band’s name also refers.
Despite the fact that the band broke up after only a year, it still enjoys cult status among music connoisseurs today. Their performances at the Piper Club in Rome, the hottest club in Italy at the time, were progressive and experimental. Under Schifano’s direction, the psychedelic sounds of the music merged with projections of films or painted slides to create innovative multimedia shows.
