Indio Solari died on 5 June at his home in Parque Leloir, in the locality of Ituzaingó, ending the life of one of the most influential and elusive figures in Argentine rock. He was 77. An autopsy was to be carried out by protocol to establish the cause of death.
The name searched now is the same one that shaped decades of rock culture in Argentina. Solari was the former leader of Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, the band he founded with Skay Beilinson in La Plata in 1975, and the group left a mark with nine studio albums before disbanding in 2001. For many followers, his death closes a story that ran from underground fervor to national legend.
His last public appearance came in January, when he received an Honoris Causa from the University of Buenos Aires. That was a rare moment in public after years in which his health had limited his activity. In March 2016, during a recital in Tandil, he publicly confirmed that he had Parkinson's disease and said, in his own words, that “el Parkinson me anda pisando los talones.”
The disease had already changed the shape of his career. His last live recital took place in Olavarría in 2017, and in 2020 he used holographic techniques to offer a virtual concert. Two years later, in 2023, he confirmed that he was definitively retiring from live performances because the illness had progressed. That made January’s appearance in Buenos Aires even more striking: it was the last time many saw him in public.
After Los Redondos split, Solari kept working solo and released El tesoro de los inocentes (Bingo Fuel) in 2004, Porco Rex in 2007, El perfume de la tempestad in 2010, Pajaritos, bravos muchachitos in 2013 and El ruiseñor, el amor y la muerte in 2018. He stayed central to Argentine rock precisely because he remained partly out of sight, with a low profile and an evasive relationship with the traditional media. The unanswered point now is the one that protocol will try to settle: what caused his death at home on 5 June.
