Mario Venuti

Though he came to represent the music scene that came out of Catania in the 1980s and '90s, Mario Venuti was born in Siracusa (on October 28, 1963) and lived in various other places in Sicily before his family finally settled down in the city under Mt. Etna. He grew up listening to the Beatles and studying piano and guitar, and in 1984 he joined the group Denovo, right when a new kind of rock music was beginning to spread across Italy (characterized by artists like Ligabue and Vasco Rossi). Denovo -- for whom Venuti played guitar and sang -- released five albums before breakin...