Johnny Hallyday RIP

[Cheese]

Johnny Hallyday has passed away last night. If he doesn't deserve a state funeral in France, I wonder who does. The ultimate rock singer, womanizer, tax escapist, a star of unparalleled stature and a national hero. If you go to France these days, expect cities to be packed with people mourning. There probably wasn't a day in the last 50 years when he didn't appear in some French tabloid, for all sorts of reasons... In some way, this thread should rather appear in the off topic section, so immense was his presence. If you see or talk to a Frenchman these days, don't forget to express him your heartfelt condolences, no joke.

The archetype of a generous performer, every single Frenchman and -woman grew up with him and carries him somewhere in his/her heart. This sad day is France's day, Johnny leaves a huge gap.

 

[sls4321]

My Belgian wife will be devastated.

 

[avole]

RIP Johnny. He'd been sick for a while.

The French nation will be in mourning, he really was a phenomenon who appealed to all ages, which not many others have been able to do.

 

[starbuck]

RIP. I will dig out my copy of the superb 'La Generation Perdue' to play again today.

 

[sls4321]

We were on holiday recently for a few days in a remote villa, one of the two other families, he said he was in a band and she said she did some modelling and writing. He was Hallyday’s lead guitarist and musical director and she was the face of Lancôme and Carl Lagerfeld’s muse. So I guess the descripton was correct. My elder son, who knows rock music backwards, had never heard of Hallyday, but they spent the best part of three days talking guitars and music. My wife almost passed out. Anyone who knew or worked with him had disciple status. He was still touring regularly into his 70s and totally driven by this account. Our kids played lots of pool in the evening and my younger son remarked that it would be really cool to have a rock star and a supermodel as parents. No answer to that. Hallyday didn’t change music like Some bands, the French chanteuse style continued and my kids grew up to Yves Duteil. More a parallel super-existence. French rock music remains eclectic. Irreplaceable.

 

[Stunsworth]

Difficult to explain how big he was in France. There was a statistic that a huge percentage of the French public had seen him live (50%?).

He once had a certain Jimi Hendrix as support act.

 

[florette69]

Irreplaceable indeed. Thankfully he leaves an enormous back catalogue.