Bravo, 1981: Björn: I would love to fly to the moon

As a teenager, I loved to listen to rock ‘n’ roll, but at the same time I was into folk music too. For instance, I liked the Kingston Trio. Apart from that, it was easier to start a folk group than a rock ‘n’ roll group. You only needed a couple of acoustic guitars. That was all.
Most of all, I liked Tommy Steele and Elvis. Nowadays, I think Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ is the best album of the last year. At the moment, my favourite is Barbra Streisand’s album ‘Guilty’.
For that matter, we have a subscription to the top 30 of the USA and England. These singles are sent to us every week, all of them on a cassette. This enables us to listen to the latest stuff every week. And whenever an important album is released, like the Eagles, Streisand, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd or Stevie Wonder, we obviously listen to those as well.

At one point, we met the Sex Pistols when they performed here in Stockholm. That was very funny because they told us: “Please don’t tell this to anybody, but when we are at home, we like to listen to ABBA more than anything.”
Personally, I have nothing against punk, because finally something was happening again in the music scene. A further stage of that is now new wave. There are very good groups around. I listen to everything new that’s released on the market. In my opinion, some of this new wave stuff doesn’t sound that new to me, but whatever...
In former times, I never believed that I could have a career as a musician, because my father always wanted me to become an engineer. So in school I was only interested in things that could be useful in my profession later on. Actually, I was a very good pupil. Especially in arithmetic, physics, languages and chemistry, I did very well. The rest didn’t interest me very much, unfortunately, I have to say today.
For instance, in history class I never paid attention. In general, I had fun at school. But my teachers not as much, I’m afraid. Because it was difficult for me to sit still and keep my mouth shut.
I got to know the facts of life in school. Because in Sweden, you get educated in that respect quite early, and everything is explained in a factual manner. But you only find out in reality yourself and together with friends, outside the class room. You learn the facts in school, the earlier the better.
But sex isn’t the most important thing in a relationship for me, but humour is. It’s nice when you are able to laugh together. You also have to respect your partner as a person and you mustn’t try to control each other. I think that preconditions like that are far more important.
I have a good sense of humour in every respect. That’s why my favourite actor is John Cleese. I used to like Richard Burton too, but these days he makes too much lousy movies. I prefer horror and science fiction movies. I particularly liked ‘Close Encounters Of The Third Kind’, ‘Repulsion’ and ‘The Fearless Vampire Killers’ by Polanski.

Whenever it would be possible for private persons to fly to the moon, I would definitely do that. But I still have other dreams that I want to realise.
There are still so many countries that I’d love to see, for instance in Asia. I haven’t seen Tibet, India and Africa yet, to name a few. The most wonderful adventure for me would be a trip to China. One day I will have enough time to do it, that’s for sure. In a lot of these countries, there’s still poverty or wars are raging. Those are the biggest problems of this world for me.
The saddest thing in the industrial countries is that no one is looking at the future with confidence anymore. Everyone is having a negative attitude. People are afraid of changes.
The politicians are worse than ever. To me, they are worthless, because they have lost contact with the people. They don’t have any ideals anymore, they are managing their country. That’s all. They only peer at the votes, without really accomplishing anything. For instance in the sixties, when I was growing up, things were still different. I was looking forward to my future, my life, all the things that I was going to experience. These days, it seems to me that the brakes are put on young people. That’s why so many of them are taking drugs. They don’t have any reason to look at the future joyfully, because that’s where unemployment, crises and economic problems are waiting. And they are escaping this hopelessness with alcohol and drugs.
Myself, I only smoke at parties at the most. And I rarely have a drink. I sometimes have a beer when I’m in Germany, and a glass of wine when I’m in France. Here in Stockholm I only drink wine when I’m having dinner.
Whenever I’m asked about my goals in life, I always reply that I have already achieved my goals. It may seem that I’m already resting on my laurels. But that’s not true. I still think it’s exciting to have a number one record somewhere.
Privately, my only goal is being a good father to my children. Apart from that, I want to enjoy my life. That’s very important. Because when I feel good, the people around me are feeling good as well. If I had to live my life all over, I wouldn’t change a thing. Because I didn’t make any bad mistakes.
I’m actually not religious. I believe in something, but I haven’t decided yet what that is. Either way, I don’t believe in the religion of the church. I never go to church. I don’t believe in life after death either.
I could imagine living on a lonely island for some time. Most certainly, I would bring along my wife Lena. She is the most important thing. Perhaps my children as well. But I believe it would be better for them to stay in Stockholm. Then I would pack a whole bunch of books, a guitar, a record player and records by Herbert von Karajan, Beethoven, Bach, the Beatles and the Beach Boys.