Interview with Tico and Eva from 1997
 

Just bought the copy of Notorious Magazine with them on the cover off eBay, figured I'd post the interview. I'll put up the pictures when I can get my hands on a scanner - Tico in a fashion spread is less hilarious than it should be.

Tico & Eva: High Fashion. Rock & Roll. Hot Monogamy.

"What's with all these rock stars marrying all these models?' asked Britain's top social critic Ben Elton at Montreal's annual "Just for Laughs" festival. Every time he sees them en masse at openings or concerts, he can't help recalling that scene from Fantasia where the buckets dance with the mops.

Well, no one would be crazy enough to confuse Czech-born supermodel Eva Herzigova, 24, and Cuban-born Tico Torres, 44, the drummer for Bon Jovi, with cleaning utensils. Lovers from a French classic like Breathless, possibly. Compatriots of Lemon Power Fantastik, never.

Married just over a year, Herzigova, who gained fame sporting the Wonderbra in ads, and Torres, who played drums for the likes of Chuck Berry, Pat Benatar, Miles Davis and Cher before joining what was to become one of the world's most successful rock bands, seem to be spurring each other on to even greater heights and diversifications. Herzigova made her film debut in 1995, in Les Agnes Gardiens with Gerard Depardieu, and Torres is now a respected painter exhibiting his work internationally.

His art is so popular that at the time we went to press, $30,000 of the paintings that he had lent to Spike Lee for Lee's latest film had been stolen from a truck while being transported to the set. Luckily, the works of his owned by serious collectors such as Bono, Claudia Schiffer and David Copperfield, Ron Perlman, Donald Trump and numerous others are still in safe hands.

Profits from his creative output, especially from "The Majors Collection" (exact life-casts of the actual grips of golfers who have won a major tournament, including Arnold Palmer and Greg Norman), go to the Tico Torres Foundation for Children that, according to his publicist, provides help to the young suffering from poverty, AIDS, and other diseases.

When not in career mode, Herzigova and Torres spend much of their time being romantic. A good example is that the duo spent their honeymoon on safari in Africa, where Torres almost put the kibosh on his new spouse.

"I gave her too many malaria pills. I [soon] figured out that you're supposed to take one a week, not one a day. She thought I was trying to kill her," Torres notes.

"I was getting dizzy. I couldn't see. I couldn't sleep. I was throwing up," Herzigova adds.

The honeymoon became even more memorable when a baby elephant started chasing their car.

"He came over with ears going like that and with feet going like this, then he started running after us," Herzigova says as she acts out the scene. "That was scary, but also beautiful."

"I would have saved you," the drummer/artist comforts. "All you have to say is ''um-gah-wah' and it goes away."

When at home - they have three houses, one each in Monaco, New York, and New Jersey - the two spend nearly all their time shopping for household goods. Well, that causes them to travel, too. Next stop is Mexico for doors and, soon after, Morocco for lamps. But doesn't such a full existence cause a bit of stress or a bit of nervousness over the future?

Not for Herzigova.

"You know, life is so short, and life is so unexpected that you never know what's going to happen. We have stupid little fights, but - "

"We always try to have a conversation about whatever," Torres adds. "When you have two people, I don't care who they are, there are the times and tribulations where all ain't that great. Sometimes you go, 'I don't like you today.'"

"Yeah, exactly," Herzigova agrees. But the two always make up.

Interview: Eva Herzigova/Tico Torres

Notorious: Now, you both started your careers at age sixteen.

Eva: I think Tico started earlier, didn't you?

Notorious: Tico, weren't you in your first band at sixteen? Sweat?

Tico: I was in Cold Sweat when I was sixteen, but I started when I was fourteen.

Eva: And I started modeling at seventeen, actually.

Notorious: At those ages, most Americans are doing nothing but pricing at the mall, yet you both had started on your career paths and stuck it out to become major successes. Do you think your drive is part of your attraction to each other?

Tico: I think so. The fact that we both do have a drive, and that we both go toward something. I mean, Eva bounces ideas off me, and naturally I bounce ideas off her. Whenever I go into the studio where I paint, I ask her, "What do you think?" She'll, no holds barred, tell me what she thinks. And I respect it because she doesn't tell me, "It's nice" just because it's me. She tells me, "I don't like this," or "You're in the right direction but it is really terrible." It's good because at least I know where to go from there.

Eva: I would say we both come from the same kind of a family.

Notorious: Which is?

Tico: Very loving families.

Eva: Loving and caring. They mean a lot to me and Tico.

Notorious: Another connection is that you both grew up in Communist countries, and now in the good ol' capitalist U.S. of A., you are as a combined family unit probably up there in the top one percent of our rich folks. Possibly top two percent. That's an amazing trek for you two, from poverty to Jacuzzis.

Eva: [Laughing] Top two percent, at least. Gee, I really wish.

Tico: I tell you we're richer than anybody because we got great parents. That's all you need.

Notorious (to Tico): Among the Cubans I've interviewed who still live on Fidel's isle, their dreams are a bit limited by the reality of their situation. Your parents must have a hard time comprehending what you two have accomplished.

Tico: I grew up in New York City. It gave me the drive because I saw my family exiled from Cuba. I could see the hurt in them. So I naturally just said I got to fight my way up. They gave me a lot of strength. So did living in the city. My father left us. So it was all up to my mother and grandmother.

Notorious: Does being raised by two women make you a much more loving spouse and much more appreciative of the opposite sex?

Tico: Yeah, it definitely does.

Eva: In a really big way, that affects Tico. It can be seen in the direction of his paintings. Definitely. Everything is woman. They have a woman's feel, touch...they're just great.

Tico: They make my clothes, for God's sake. My mother is a seamstress. My mother and grandmother, they brought me up and they made all my stage clothes. My grandmother, until she was ninety-five, she made them.

Eva: She just turned one hundred.

Notorious: So they were both at the wedding.

Tico: Yeah.

Eva: Oh yeah. She's an unbelievable woman. Tico and I have been together for, what? Three years?

Tico: Almost four.

Eva: Three and a half years. She's never spoken one word in English to me. Never. She's always speaking Spanish, which I try to understand but I cannot answer. One day, we went over and were just kidding around the table where we were all seated. And I was going like this with a teacup [she pretends she's hitting him over the head], and Grandma was so protective. She stood up and lifted her cane and went, "Take it easy!" That's just one story.

Tico: If you ever want to meet an angel, you got to meet my grandmother.

Eva: She's wonderful.

Tico: She touches everyone. So I hope you get to meet her one time.

Notorious (to Eva): So you speak four languages.

Eva: Yes, I speak four. I mean I grew up with Czech and Russian.

Notorious: And now you speak English and French.

Eva: Yes.

Notorious: So Spanish should come easily.

Eva: I understand because I understand Italian. I Speak a little Italian but not as fluently as my English and French. It's similar.

Notorious (to Tico): And you speak Spanish fluently?

Tico: Fluently, yes.

Notorious: So when you two address each other endearingly, do you employ foreign terms or do you settle for the normal Americanisms like "honey"?

Tico: It's Ricky and Lucy. For example, last week we were getting into a little rivalry situation. She starts going off in Czech and I start going off in Spanish, and we're both talking two different languages and not understanding, because I'm learning Czech but it's difficult for me and she's refusing to learn Spanish. She's taking her time. So it's sort of like we still have our own turf when it comes to language, but it's pretty funny. If you had a tape of it, you'd have to laugh. It's pure Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. It's hilarious. [Eva laughs] I don't know what our kids are going to speak. If we are ever going to have kids, they'll probably learn all four languages.

Eva: Yeah, it'll be English, Spanish, Czech, French. That's good enough.

Notorious: Are you talking about children yet or are they considered a future project?

Eva: Definitely. I love children. And I want a lot of children. I come from a big family. I definitely want at least three children, but not now. A little later. The year 2000.

Notorious: The year 2000? For all three?

Eva: Not three by then. [Laughs] I hope not. Triplets.

Tico: We'll take our time. It'll be fun to have kids. We're building a home now.

Notorious: Now that Tico is concentrating on his art, he's home much more. But nevertheless do you both still find yourselves apart and traveling a lot?

Eva: My God! Yes, we do. A lot.

Notorious: So it's still not like you are together all the time. Most women married to artists are stuck with them day in and day out.

Tico: We both have these traveling lives. We meet, and it's still romantic. It's still a honeymoon. It always will be. I recently met Eva in Paris, and I had a show in Munich a couple days later, so it was like we meet, we hang, we have a great time together then we go our ways. I kind of miss it when she's not around. Once we get comfortable after a week together, I don't wan her to go away.

Eva: I gotta go.

Tico: And when I'm on the road [with Bon Jovi], it's even harder for her because I can't really get away from that situation. It's predestined exactly where you are going because you have a crew of three hundred people and you just can't take off whenever you want.

Notorious: Some folks find separation beneficial to relationships.

Eva: Definitely, because it's always like that first time, which you lose in a married life or in a relationship that lasts longer. You lose that first-time feeling. I think it's the nicest. Every time we are together, we are having like a precious time because there's not so much of it. The time we are together it's a "wealth"-spent time. It's, like, negotiated.

Tico: We love a lot. We fight a lot. It's great.

Eva: Yeah, and you pay more attention to each other.

Tico: You're not taking each other for granted because you're not with each other. I think that's the basis of our relationship. So I think that's maybe why we're still together. We still create that space between us where it's nice to be together.

Eva: You know, we met up in Venice because I was working there. Tico came over to visit. How romantic is that? It's like we stay for two days, then we come somewhere else, and it's just cool. It's definitely cool.

Tico: We're making it work.

Notorious: Eva, you have gotten yourself the ideal American man. He's powerful, he's rich, he has a great body. He's really sort of a macho man type, at least on the exterior.

Tico: [Laughs] Who's that?

Notorious: Is Tico the type of man you thought you were going to get, the sort you dreamed about back in Czechoslovakia?

Eva: No, not me. I didn't imagine the sort of way he was supposed to look. To me, it doesn't matter. It's about the heart and the personality and the charm.

Tico: Did you ever dream of a man with a hairy chest?

Eva: No, I wasn't really dreaming about a hairy chest. [Laughs] I wouldn't put it that way. I guessed he would be a dark-haired man as far as the outside looks. Tico is very sexy, though. He's sexy the way he looks. He's sexy the way he is. His voice. Everything.

Notorious: Do you think that's because he comes from Cuba? There's a stereotype that Cuban men are very arousing.

Eva: Right. Probably. Yes, I guess so. It might have something to do with it. I wouldn't give Cuba all the credit, but I think that the Latin part has a lot to do with his being aggressive. Hot-blooded. You know when he like fires up really easily and quickly, and then he just cools down.

Notorious: I hear you're a potter, Eva. Did Tico ever threaten to break any of your pottery?

Eva: They're not breakable because they're not fired yet. I bought this computerized kiln. At first I Sat there and watched it for like twelve hours, and I still couldn't figure out how it works.

Notorious: Were you inspired by that Patrick Swayze movie?

Tico: Ghost.

Eva: Oh, that was so beautiful. That was really gorgeous. So sensitive.

Tico: We watched that together. I said, we have to try that.

Eva: Making pottery's very calming and it's creative and it's, you know, when you're like in your own world, you have a creative thing that's going through your head. You just go. Travel in your mind. It's cool.

Tico: It's a good escape.

Notorious: Have you found more time to read? I heard you only have time to read cookbooks in the bathroom.

Eva: I love cookbooks. I just bought another three this weekend.

Notorious: Are you starting to cook?

Tico: She's quite a cook.

Eva: Yes, though there's not much time.

Tico: You cook pretty good.

Eva: I do cook when I have time.

Notorious: So what's your specialty?

Eva: I love risotto. An Italian dish.

Tico: It's really good.

Notorious: Do you find food sexy?

Eva: It's a part of life.

Tico: I find it very sexy.

Notorious: Did you ever have a meal and then watch 9 1/2 Weeks?

Eva: No, not like that. That's pretty cool.

Tico: I always get turned on after dinner for some reason.

Eva: Excuse me?

Tico: I always feel more sexual after dinner.

Notorious: On a full stomach.

Tico: Yeah.

Eva: The stomach is everything.

Tico: There's something about Eva when she's cooking. It tastes good because of the love you put in it. It's not the ingredients, it's the effort and love that really transcends the food. The first time she cooked, I think it was a chicken dish and it was like, I can say it now because she's cooking great now, but at the time it was like, "Oh! I'm going to be on a diet." It was tough.

Eva: Don't piss me off. Come on! It was eatable.

Tico: It was edible.

Eva: Edible. It was.

Tico: Well, I didn't die.

Notorious (to Tico): I was surprised to read that your reviewers compared your paintings to Francis Bacon and Edvard Munch. Were you?

Tico: Yeah. [Laughs] Wouldn't anybody be? Ten people can look at the same painting and walk away with a different feeling, which is pretty cool.

Notorious (to Eva): Did you know you were marrying a painter?

Eva: No. No. No. Tico was a -

Tico: Closet painter. Eva's the reason I even showed anything. She just said, "You got to show this."

Notorious: Would you ever let Tico paint your pots?

Eva: No. He does his own thing.

Tico: What?

Eva: He asked, "Would I let you paint my pots?"

Tico: Your pots?

Eva: No. He does his own.

Tico: I do my own pots.

Eva: Exactly. [Laughs]

Tico: I would love to do your pots, baby.

Eva: Would you?

Tico: Yeah.

Eva: Really.

Tico: Yeah.

Eva: Okay. It's a deal.

Great article, thanks for posting!

Rach xxx

Thanks for posting!! Really nice :)

That's very nice :)
Thanx!