Fabio: confessions of the original male supermodel

Before Zoolander, David Gandy and Insta-fame, there was only one male model worth knowing: Fabio Lanzoni, a man with flowing blond locks and a jaw as square as a packet of ham. Now 56, he talks about setting a new industry standard and shares his life lessons

started when I was barely 14 years old. I was in Milan, at the gym, and one of the two biggest photographers in Europe, Oliviero Toscani, came up to me and said, ‘You should model.’ I wasn’t in the industry, so I had no idea who he was. I remember giving him my father’s phone number. He called my father, hired me for a big campaign and things took off from there.

I came to New York City at 19 years old, walked into the Ford modelling agency without an appointment and walked out with a contract. The next day, in the gym, I got a call and was asked to meet with Barry McKinley, then the biggest photographer in the world. He hired me for the biggest campaign in America – the launch of the Gap. At that time, if you were one of the top male models in the world, you could earn $120,000 a year. My first job, straight away, was close to $150,000. So I set new standards.

I think I was the first really muscular model. When I started modelling, [clothes] were a 40-inch regular; here I am coming in with a 56-inch chest. I couldn’t fit my arm into a suit.

Some writers saw me and said, “I want my hero to look like this guy,” and approached me for their book covers. Then I’m doing 15 or 16 book covers a day.

When shooting those covers, it’s simple: you’re hugging a beautiful girl and you think about making love to her. You look at the camera and you go, “I’m serious – if I get hold of you, I’ll do a number on you. I would make you lose your sanity!” You play a character, otherwise it would be just another empty picture. People would look at your eyes and expression – and they can tell.

Fabio: a man of many book covers

I’d be the biggest hypocrite if I said I really worked very hard for my career, because it was given to me on a silver platter. I can’t take any credit. My major focus was sports and going to the gym.

Miracles exist – you just have to believe it. A lot of the time when people pray to God they aren’t specific enough. I always tell people God is the god of details. You have to ask for the detail. So, you want a car – what kind of car do you want? Do you want a Cherokee, a Ford, a Chevy, a Bentley? An off-road vehicle? What about the trim and interior and the wheels? Be specific, then when you get something like that it will be no coincidence. I always prayed to God and that’s why I saw my life as a miracle.

They offered me everything – movies, shows, so many things I could have done. I could have been a million times bigger. But the question I asked myself was, “If I accept all this work, am I going to be happy or miserable?” The answer was loud and clear.

Fabio circa 2000. Photograph: Maureen Donaldson/Getty Images

They wanted me to be Tarzan, but that would have meant living in Mexico for three or four years – and there’s not enough money in the world to make me want to do that. Some places you just want to visit. No way. I don’t think so. I’m out.

Fabio as the face of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.

People come to Los Angeles and sell their soul every day. It’s sad. Here, the mentality is that everyone has a price. But I say no – no money 

can buy my soul. I’ve had so many offers that I didn’t think were proper and I’d say sorry, I don’t need it. I didn’t want to work my butt off and not be happy. I’ll always choose happiness and life over all the money in the world. Across my entire career, I had respect in the industry, because I was the one who never sold out.

People ask if I’ve made a pact with the devil to still look like this – but I say I’ve made a pact with God. I go to the gym for 60 minutes at least four times a week. In my property, I have a very tough trail, and I do hiking and running and motorcross enduro, then in the gym I do regular cardio and lift weights.

When you have a bad day, you have to think about how lucky you are. You think of people with cancer, people coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq [with] no arms or legs. And you say, “how can I be getting upset because I had a bad hair day?”

I lost my younger sister to cancer. So I know that you have to live day by day – you don’t know what’s happening tomorrow. I have perspective. Life is so fragile; you have to treasure it. And you have to have fun – you cannot take yourself too seriously. Look at Napoleon.

 ‘The only thing left in my life to do is find a wife and get some kids.’ Photograph: ITV/Rex Shutterstock

To tell you the truth, I really don’t care [about Instagram], because I have a life. I don’t want people to know what I’m doing or where I’m at. I understand that [models] are using it to make a business and a life for themselves, but I’ve already made so many businesses. I have the most amazing line of nutrition – the highest quality, pretty much, in the United States – and it’s going really well. I can be taking a shower and my distributor is taking orders. I don’t need to be on Instagram.

The only thing left in my life to do is find a wife and get some kids. All the rest, trust me, it’s done. But you always find one person that might be a contender and then afterwards you get disappointed. So I always keep my eye open.