EDDY MITCHELL. In his last album, “Country Rock”, Eddy Mitchell dedicated a song to his late friend, Johnny Hallyday and took the opportunity to say what he thought of those close to him.
[Mis à jour le 20 décembre 2021 à 20h32] “For me you were more than a friend, a half brother, almost a double …” In his last album, Country rock, Eddy Mitchell addresses many topical subjects, but also his friend, Johnny Hallyday, who died four years ago. With A little bit of love, the rocker offers a true declaration of friendship, almost fraternal, to the Idol of the young.
“One evening, looking at old photos, I found a lot of pictures with Johnny. I said to myself: ‘This is about him that I have to do a song.'”, Says Eddy Mitchell about it. in the columns of Télé Star. “As I miss him, it was easy. We were like two brothers. We knew each other, I was 15, he was 14. We never left each other, never yelled at. Johnny was the godfather of my daughter Pamela, I’m Laura’s godfather. It was family, “he adds.
The opportunity also for Eddy Mitchell to give his opinion on the relatives of Johnny Hallyday, he who often does not miss an opportunity to send spikes to the widow of Taulier, Laeticia Hallyday. In the same song, A Little Bit of Love, he sings: “To be adored, sometimes to be wrong. To discover that betrayal begins with love or friendship. But it’s not for not having warned you . You haven’t listened to anything. ” Eddy Mitchell explains about this text to Télé Star: “He allowed himself to be betrayed. He gave a lot, without distinction. He was often wrong. He wanted to stay in the game, always have someone younger by his side.”
Five Victories of Music, a Cesar for Best Actor, an immense career and dozens of hits. This is how we could summarize, very briefly, his career. Before being Eddy Mitchell and having the career that we know him, it was on July 3, 1942 that Claude Moine was born, in the ninth arrondissement of Paris. Coming from a modest family – his mother is a bank employee and his father works at the Société des transports en commun de la région parisienne (STCRP) -, it is very early that he discovers music in general and rock ‘ n’roll in particular. He was only eleven years old and at that time, this musical genre had become essential in the United States. Fan ofElvis Presley and Gene Vincent, he abandons his birth name: Claude Moine becomes Eddy Mitchell.
He becomes the singer of the first French rock group, The black socks, in 1960. He left the group after three years to begin a solo career whose success would continue from decades to decades with hits like On the road to Memphis (1976), The last session (1977) or Mint color in water (1980). Alongside his musical successes, he began a film career in the 1960s by playing his own role in Parisiennes, a sketches film starring in particular Catherine Deneuve and Johnny Hallyday. It is Bertrand Tavernier who reveals the talents of actor of Eddy Mitchell by attributing to him a role in in 1981. He continues by giving the reply to Miou-Miou and Roger Hanin in the comedy Be careful, a woman can hide another by Georges Lautner.
From the mid-80s to the 90s, nothing seemed to stop the rocker’s career as an actor, who went from the films of Jean-Pierre Mocky in 1984 to those of the comedians Les Nuls who gave him a small role in the legendary comedy. The City of Fear in 1994. The following year is that of his consecration since he obtains the César for best supporting role in Happiness is in the meadow by Etienne Chatiliez, in which he gives the reply to Michel Serrault. After this consecration, Eddy Mitchell plays alongside Christian Clavier in Lovely Rita in 2003 and took part in the dubbing of the animated film The Magic Roundabout in 2005. It was not until 2012 to see him again at the top of the bill thanks to the film by his friend Etienne Chatiliez alongside Valérie Bonneton and Alexandra Lamy.
For several years, Eddy Mitchell has deserted concert halls. Worse for his fans: the singer had even announced that he no longer wanted to perform on stage. After half a century of career, in 2009 he announced his last tour. “These are not false farewells even if I’m afraid that I will miss it. This last tour will necessarily be moving,” he confided in the columns of the Parisian at the time. His farewells, Eddy Mitchell reiterated them in 2015, just after the tour of the Vieilles Canailles with his friends Jacques Dutronc and Johnny Hallyday. “I don’t want to tour 90 dates anymore. I’m sick of the gourmet salad at one o’clock in the hotel lobby. I don’t want to see NRJ 12 on TV at two in the morning. “, he added at the microphone of Europe 1 in 2015.
It’s hard to talk about Eddy Mitchell’s career without talking about the trio of Vieilles Canailles. This mythical trio that he forms with Johnny Hallyday and Jacques Dutronc, Eddy Mitchell is the instigator. In 2014, the three pillars of French rock offered their audience a first round of concert events, in Paris. But in 2017, the Taulier launched another idea: a new tour, but in the provinces. “We do not refuse anything to Johnny”, blurted out at the time the interpreter of Mint color in water. It must be said that between Johnny Hallyday and Eddy Mitchell, the friendship is old. It even dates back to the 1960s, when the French public already adored the one who would become the Idol of young people. The two rockers liked to meet in the Trinity district of Paris to talk about music for hours. “We met at a surprise party in Square de la Trinité. I gave him a pie because he stole my Gene Vincent records (…). He finally returned them to me and apologized, we hit it off very quickly, “he confided.
If with the death of Johnny Hallyday, France lost one of its most emblematic singers, Eddy Mitchell himself, lost a dear and longtime friend. “I miss him”, confided to Parisian Eddy Mitchell about his friend who died in December 2017 and whom he remembers “of a tough guy, a guy alive, living as he saw fit”. Since then, the crooner has repeatedly confided his sadness after the disappearance of Taulier, in particular in a documentary broadcast on France 3 in November 2019. “Johnny I loved him, and then that’s it. He was a real friend. , he was someone very, very close, who I miss … and then that I would find one day “, explained Eddy Mitchell. And to Jacques Dutronc, third Vieille Canaille, to add humorously in the same documentary: “You have to tell Eddy that he does not sing ‘If there is only one left I’ll be that one’ (the one of his songs editor’s note.) all the same. That doesn’t suit me… The bastard, he had it all figured out already. “
If the friendship between Eddy Mitchell and Johnny Hallyday has crossed the ages, the same cannot be said of the good understanding between the crooner and the last wife of Taulier, Laeticia Hallyday. The latter would not have appreciated the behavior of the friend of her husband who disappeared during his funeral, tells the journalist Benjamin Locoge in the book “The ballad of Johnny & Laeticia: made in rock’n’roll”. On the day of the ceremony at the Madeleine, Eddy Mitchell would have refused to be part of the official procession. But their quarrel would already go back to the last tour of the Vieilles Canailles in 2017, during which the singer would have accused Laeticia Hallyday of not taking enough care of her husband, already suffering from cancer which will be fatal. “Eddy also believes that his old friend was not sufficiently protected by Laeticia”, explains the journalist in his book, bringing out in particular a memory, when the Taulier had to wait for a helicopter after a concert: “Johnny had to hang around two before being able to go home. All this only because Madame had people to see … My poor Johnny … “.
And with the death of Johnny Hallyday, then the endless war of inheritance waged by his heirs, tensions have not subsided between Eddy Mitchell and Laeticia Hallyday. The singer had even reaffirmed his unwavering support for his goddaughter: “I do not understand that we disinherit our children, we must not do it (…). We have the right to disinherit our children in the United States for our cat or his dog, but we are not Americans, “he lamented to AFP in May 2018. Since then, Eddy Mitchell has not lost an opportunity to send more or less discreet pikes to Laeticia Hallyday …
If Eddy Mitchell has trouble hiding his hostility to Johnny Hallyday’s last marriage, he too has had several relationships. On June 17, 1961, Eddy Mitchell married Françoise Lavit. The next day, the singer is already on stage with Les Chaussettes Noires, headliner of the second international rock festival organized at the Palais des sports in Paris. From the union of Eddy Mitchell and Françoise Lavit, two first children were born, Eddy in 1962 and Marilyn in 1965. But the couple separated in 1979, after nearly twenty years of marriage. The crooner, whose fame is now well established, married in second marriage Muriel Bailleul in 1980. The latter will give birth to a girl Pamela, in 1982. It is moreover Johnny Hallyday who is chosen as godfather of the third child of Eddy Mitchell, who is one of the two godfathers of Laura Smet, the daughter of Taulier and Nathalie Baye.