After hearing Jimi Hendrix albums, he composed his first songs on the guitar, while he explored other notable guitarists, like Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton.

He explored writers like Rubem Fonseca, Jorge Amado, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville and his famous Moby-Dick.

Although very interested in Jovem Guarda and Yellow Submarine from The Beatles, Bellotto only entered deeply in the rock music one year later, on a trip to the United States.

These influences, together with Caetano Veloso, João Gilberto and Luiz Melodia, some of his idols, contributed for his wide knowledge of music.

With his guitar, he toured colleges and bars singing and playing, with his own compositions, and opening shows of well known MPB names, like Jorge Mautner.

At that time, Bellotto attempted to enter an architecture course at a college in Santos, but he quit it to dedicate his life only to music and writing.

[1] Until 2012, Tony Bellotto kept a column called "Cenas Urbanas" ("Urban Scenes") at Brazilian magazine Veja.