#may 1997

24 years ago, on May 6, 1997, Johnny attended and was awarded on the 14th Gran Premio Internazionale dello Spettacolo, held at the Ventaglio Nazionale Theatre in Milan, Italy.

On that day, Johnny (who seemed not even expecting) was awarded with an special Telegatto Award, for contributing with his foreign movies in the Italian cinemas and television.

But what was a great moment was also a funny, awkward and embarrassing moment at the same time… As we can see in the video, Johnny seemed not know he was going to be honored with an award or go on stage. He was sat on the front row of the audience, chewing gum, when they announced his name and was invited to go on stage. On stage, the presenters tried to speak English, gave him the award and talked about how Johnny looked different with a short hair. Our shy Johnny tried to lighten the unexpected moment making fun trying to speak in Italian “Mi dispiace, non parlo italiano…” which means “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Italian” and then thanked for “the cat” (the award). The presenter said they are proud of him for being there and asked he still play music of if “just forgot”. Johnny jokes saying he “forgot completely” but continues telling that he still plays. And that’s that... Johnny stayed on stage, chewing gum, with a microphone in on hand, a “cat” on the other, with the presenters speaking in Italian, while he with no help of a translator had no glue of what was going on...