‘First and only person who went to see me in jail’, says Rita Lee about Elis Regina in an interview

Rita Lee had many friends in the music business, but she always mentioned Elis Regina as one of the most important people in her life. In an interview with Astrid Fontenelle in 1998, the singer who died on Monday (8), aged 75, revealed one of the most dramatic moments: the arrest when she was three months pregnant with her first child, Beto Lee. It was September 1976 and, the day after she was arrested, she received a visit from the interpreter of “Falso Brilhante” and “Madalena”.

“At the time of the Record, Mutantes and Tropicalismo festivals, Elis would walk past people, turning her face away. She was part of that march against the electric guitar in Brazilian music. The last person I expected to visit me in jail was Elis”, said Rita, remembering that the singer took her son João Marcello Bôscoli, 6 years old, by the hand. “When the jailer said: ‘Hey, Ovelha Negra, there’s a famous singer around the Bahian girl, saying she’s going to call the press. She wants to see you'”.

Rita recalled that Elis soon thought she was too thin. “She started talking hard with the police: ‘What are you doing to her?’ What she screamed, what she did inside… And you think the guys said anything? demanded: ‘I want a doctor now. If he doesn’t come, I’ll call the press’. Nobody messed with Elis. She was from Olympus. A number one!” she joked.

Lee then continued with his story: “Elis ordered me to buy food, gave me money and even asked for change (laughs). She was the first and only person to visit me at the Hippodrome. Criminal Investigations – Civil Police SP).

The former lead singer of Mutantes was arrested with her managers and eight members of the band Tutti-Frutti. In the police version, the group was arrested after complaints about drug use during a season of shows at the Teatro Aquarius. The agents searched Rita Lee’s house and said they found 300 grams of marijuana, cigarette remains and a hookah.

In an interview with Quem magazine in 2010, she said that everything had been planted by the police. At the time, she assured that the drug was not hers and that she had stopped smoking due to her pregnancy. Rita Lee was sentenced to one year of house arrest and a fine of 50 minimum wages.