Michal Horacek - Part One: a life-changing journey to the US

Michal Horacek is one of the Czech Republic's most prominent lyricists, a man who has worked with so many top musicians his CV reads like a Who's Who list: Petr Hapka, Hana Hegerova, Michal Kocab, Richard Muller and others. His work transformed the Czech music scene from the 1980s onwards. But, Michal Horacek has not just been successful as a songwriter. He has by turns been a journalist, an author, the owner of an extremely successful betting agency, and, most recently, the chairman of the jury for the 2nd edition of "Cesko hleda superstar" - the Czech version of Pop Idol. We'll look at many aspects of his life in this special two-part One on One. Today - beginnings: how he began studying journalism just two years after the Russian-led invasion of 1968.

"Indeed, it was a very difficult time, but as I was raised in a family of intellectuals - my parents, my grandparents, and even more distant relatives, had academic titles, were professors and so on. So, for me the only imaginable way was to enter a university. And, being such an 'anti-talent' in the sciences I had to opt for something creative, the Humanities. My dream had always been to become a writer. So, the faculty of journalism was the obvious choice for me."

"On the other hand, of course, there was this Russian contingent and the occupational forces that completely changed the environment especially in journalism. But, being 18, I hoped that the 'cloud' would pass, I hoped just to study."

I understand the fate of your studies was intertwined with a trip you made to the US, a trip you were determined to make.

"It is difficult to explain today, but to go legally from Czechoslovakia to the US in the 1970s was something like today saying you were going to Mars! Something unimaginable. Some people did go to the States, but they never came back, they never intended to come back. So, it was an adventure: I felt the urge to really see the States for myself, and I did this journey only after I made an inner decision that I didn't really want to study anymore."

The story that goes with this is the story of the rubber stamp...

"Yes, well, you know, my grandfather - who lived with us - was the chairman of the entomological society, he loved beetles... and he had this huge rubber stamp with the symbol of a honey bee in the middle of it, this big creature, all those legs and stuff, and it was very difficult not to notice this creature. But, I used it anyway!"

"I put it on an application. You know a visa was one thing but we had to apply for permission from our own government to travel abroad - and this had to be applied for and there was this Union of the Socialist Youth for young people on their way to the Communist Party. I wasn't a member and they refused to give me support. So, I literally took things into my own hands and I used the rubber stamp! The fascinating thing is that when an official sees a rubber stamp he doesn't think much further. Well, there was this honey bee but it was such a nice round stamp. In the end, it was enough and I did go on the trip and I did make it to the US, yes."

And here I had imagined that you had somehow modified the stamp, that you had cut-out the initials of the Union of the Socialist Youth or something like that...

"No, no. Not at all."

You made it to the US: what did you see?

"I travelled from coast-to-coast, really. I saw all those sites I had only read about previously and saw New York, Washington, San Francisco, L.A., very many sites. I ended up being invited to stay with a family in Salem, Ohio for about a fortnight, going to church on Sunday, stuff like, things I would really have no opportunity to see, so it was very, very important for me."

Was it what you expected?

"Not having been there before of course I could never be sure what to expect, but yes, in a way it... it even surpassed my expectations. The people, for instance, were extremely friendly. But, also extremely, extremely naïve. By our standards, by the standards of a nation which had lived in suppression and occupation for centuries, really, you know; over here pessimism means wisdom. If you meet a guy in Prague who says 'what a beautiful day today' you'll think he's a little mad! Here, you expect everybody to say it's too cold, it's too hot, it's too windy, you know, whatever! But you must complain! {laughs} That's where it begins. And it doesn't end there: politics, political future, your personal future, here you have to always be a 'doomsayer' to be regarded as a normal, clever person! In America that was a shock: everybody said 'what a beautiful day'!"

"They believed in such things as 'democracy' and they believed in their own personal future. For me they were childishly naïve and it took me quite a while to understand that therein is the wisdom: because if you do believe in something it's the only way to have any chance at all to achieve it. That's why America achieved so much, saved this continent three times in the last century alone: the First World War, World War II, and the Cold War. Amazing."

Why did you come back?

"Because I never intended to stay. I liked this country and, as I said, I always wanted to be a writer. Czech is my mother tongue, so I could never imagine writing in a different language. [The irony] is that things always turn out differently than you imagine and when I was thrown out of the university and couldn't possibly write for any [Czech] publication at all, I learned more English and eventually became a correspondent for some American magazines and eventually won an award."

"Based on that I won a scholarship at something called the World Press Institute in St Paul, Minnesota. What a wonderful programme: they invite, every year between ten to fourteen journalists from all over the world. This must cost a lot of money. But, this a good investment, because people from Israel and Egypt, and Russia and China, get to see what America is all about. As it helped me, it certainly helps others and their societies. Another world outlook, new experience. Especially for people who come from 'closed' societies it is a priceless experience."