only lasted a few months, as in 1982, he joined Marcelo Bonfá (the drummer of the band Dado e o Reino Animal), Eduardo Paraná (guitar player, known as Kadu Lambach) and Paulo Guimarães (keyboard player, known as Paulo Paulista) to form Legião Urbana. Renato was the lead vocal and bass player. Their main influences were the post punk bands of the time, especially Robert Smith from The Cure and Morrissey from The Smiths. After the first few concerts, Eduardo Paraná and Paulo Paulista left the band. Dado Villa-Lobos then took over the guitars, creating the classic line-up of the band. The band also had Renato Rocha as a bass player from 1984 to 1989. Leading Legião Urbana, Renato Russo reached the peak of his career as a musician, being recognized as the most important songwriter of Brazilian rock, securing a cult status within his fanbase. He used to write long songs. The Dylan-esque "Faroeste Caboclo", for instance, lasts 9:05, "Clarisse" is 10:33 long and "Metal Contra as Nuvens" is 11:29 minutes. The song "Fátima" was written in ten minutes. He recorded two solo albums, with both English and Italian songs, in the 1990s. Personal life During his career he had four books published and, after his death, another four books were released about him, one of them being "Conversações com Renato Russo", which contains excerpts from interviews showing his point of view on rock, bisexuality (including his own), the world, drugs and politics. He later told Folha de S. Paulo, in a 1980s interview, that he was pansexual, saying, "I am part of a minority...in this country. I consider myself pansexual". Illness and death Renato Russo was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1989, although he did not talk about it publicly. He suffered greatly with the side effects of the antiviral medicines he had to take: "When I take the cocktail, it's like I'm eating a dog alive. And the dog eats me from the inside". During a recording session in February 1996, he confided to friend and fellow singer Paulo Ricardo that he had stopped taking the medicines. He died on October 11, 1996, at 1:15 a.m., weighing only 45 kilograms (99.2 pounds), due to complications caused by AIDS. He left a son, Giuliano Manfredini, at the time 7 years old. His body was cremated and the ashes were spread at the Parque Burle Marx in São Paulo – coincidentally, Legião