“If you just fall over, it won’t do anything for you. Now there is such a storm of heat”, says Rot to presenter Cornald Maas about all the (media) attention he has received since his announcement last summer. Rot received statements of support and letters from prominent colleagues. “I have accepted this in gratitude,” said the 64-year-old artist.
Looking back on his life, Rot can say that he is satisfied. “My ambitions were never fame and success, but simply to make beautiful things. That is what I am most proud of, that I have been able to keep my pants on for 45 years and that I have produced and made an incredible amount with love,” he says. “And I think it’s all beautiful. Sure, some things are better than others, but it’s your harvest. I always enjoy that too.”
Goodbye
The inevitable goodbye is getting closer and closer, but Rot doesn’t know exactly when it will be either. If he does feel that his end is near, he will choose a hospice – especially for his four children – to spend his last days. “Otherwise it will be too intense for the children, a dad dying in a room upstairs.”
Finally, Maas asks the artist how he sees it when he is no longer there and how he would prefer to be remembered. Rot doesn’t think much of that. “If I’m forgotten in ten years, then I’ll be forgotten in ten years,” he says. In the past, the singer, in his own words, felt more that his “legacy or the masterpieces” he had created should be remembered. But now that is no longer the case. “My masterpieces are my four children, especially thanks to my wife Daan.”