In ‘I ask it’, Rudi Vranckx tells us what the song ‘Knockin’ on heaven’s door’ means to him. “It’s not because I’ve been close to death so many times,” he says.
On the occasion of his 65th birthday and thus also his retirement, VRT broadcast a portrait of Rudi Vranckx at the end of last year. In I’m requesting it Flanders’ most famous war reporter may also request a number. He chooses Knockin’ on heaven’s door by Bob Dylan. Not because he was so close to death so often, he tells Niels Destadsbader. For him, the song from the seventies is a kind of common thread throughout his life. He once bought the picture at the market in Leuven and played it gray on his grandparents’ pick-up. (Read more below the photo)
Rudi Vranckx in his own seventies. — © VRT
When he went to Israel as a war journalist against his mother’s wishes – “She once threw a pan at my head when I wanted to leave” – the song crossed his path again. “Every Thursday a band performed the song live in a bar in Jerusalem. Always between ten and eleven o’clock at night.” An unimaginable scene, says Vranckx. “A brown pub with all types of people together, sometimes with weapons on the table. That is unthinkable for us.”
READ ALSO. The world is burning, but just now Rudi Vranckx has to retire: “I also understand that I cannot stand in the trenches with a walker”
-Ask another picture on Wednesday evening: actress Liesa Naert, radio voice Charlotte Sieben, stand-up comedians Jade Mintjens and Erhan Demirci. Their choice song is performed by J.Bernardt, Merol, BLUAI and ILA and Bart Herman. Presenter Niels Destadsbader performs a special duet with Bart Peeters for someone from the audience.
READ ALSO. The adieus and comebacks of 2024: the reunion that no one believed in yet, a casual princess and farewell to the States
INFO. ‘I’m asking’ every Wednesday at 8.45 pm on VRT 1 and VRT MAX.
