Four years after Johnny Hallyday’s disappearance, the live recording of his only US tour in 2014 will be released on December 10, 2021. The group is called the box my name is johnny. It is accompanied by an original documentary behind the scenes of this musical journey to the United States. The RTL was in Los Angeles, Where Johnny lived the last years of his life. Leticia Halliday guides us in the footsteps of rock…
A chance to relive a typical singer’s day. First, enjoy a postcard picture scene at the edge of the Pacific Ocean before you meet Mike Ryan, his athletic trainer. Giant arms, little white shorts. Show us around the legendary Gold’s Gym It opened in 1965. Around us, dozens of bodybuilders are training, even outside, in the shade of palm trees …
“12 years ago, Mickey Rourke, who I was coaching, introduced him to me. Johnny was so worried about his physique, his health, his figure…,” says the coach. He wanted to stay dry. Active. And it worked! He kept this pace for a very long time. Which is impressive. He gave concerts for two or three hours, which is very permanent. We are not 20 years old, so we did a lot of aerobics and jogging … Well, it wasn’t the morning boyHe remembers. One day I told him: “See you tomorrow at ten?” He said, “Damn you!” Good day ? Yes”.
Mark Mahoney tattoo parlor
Credit: AFP
In the afternoon, after his daily exercise, Johnny would often visit his tattoo artist on the legendary Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The shop is called shamrock social club. fantastic place. Linoleum checkered on the floor. Virgin Mary, JFK, mafia figures and Irish shamrocks on the walls. Leticia Hallyday tells us about his first tattoo related to the astrological signs of his two first children…and he didn’t know how to stop. By the way, Leticia Hallyday, she has 14 now. It’s all made in this salon run by charismatic Mark Mahoney. Holy figure. Matching red pants. Leather jacket and black glasses. Some of Johnny’s tattoos took two days to work. The tattoo artist and rocker obviously sympathized…
“In a second he made me feel comfortable, and In two seconds we were already talking about old movies, old cars Such as Cadillacs, old leather jackets, Route 66, Hollywood and the stories of movie stars that he adored…, as the tattoo artist tells. When I met him he was having the great time of his life, he relaxed and finally had the luxury of thinking about himself and what was really important to him. That is why he made such symbolic and purposeful tattoos. I would say that his ideas came more from the heart than the mind. Her last photo was very special. It was such an honor for me to smell it. I had this strange feeling that I was doing something unusual for her that day…
Make the American dream a reality…
Today, Leticia Hallyday lives in her new home in Pacific Palisades, a residential area in West Los Angeles. A quieter place in town the couple chose in Halliday for its proximity to the coast. “Johnny Hallyday was terrified of the mountains even though we lived for a while in a Swiss chalet, Leticia admits. But he never liked sand,” she laughs.
Leticia Hallyday shows us around his house. Cheyenne runs. This is the female dog that Johnny adopted while on a motorbike road trip. The singer’s face is shown in many places. Johnny’s office was similarly reconstructed in the basement. in the garage? Blue rock cobra he traveled on the roads of this city where he touched freedom.
Leticia Hallyday introduced us to Johnny’s primary musical collaborators. All of them take part in the documentary. He was rubbing shoulders with them in L.A. and with them, Johnny got back into rock and blues. Don Can – Bob Dylan’s partner, Iggy Pop or The Rolling Stones – produced the album stay alive Published in 2014. For him, Johnny has always been guided by the idea of the American Dream.
“No one in the world is indifferent to this image of America. Even if you hate politics. We still love this side of America. Now, it’s fiction! It never existed! But you can’t tell Johnny!” , says Don Was. Johnny thought it was real, and he managed to perfectly and romantically capture this image of America by James Dean, Marlon Brando, and those characters on motorcycles. But Johnny was really that! And I think that Elvis was not … in general, Johnny has become a true Hollywood romantic character. He was sure I wondered if it wasn’t going through his veins. If more people spoke French in this country, it would be as popular here as it was in France, because it represents what Americans like.”
“He’s watching…”
If Johnny became more American than American, it’s also because he knew how to surround himself with Anglo-Saxon musicians. Robin Le Mesurier has been a guitarist for 23 years. “We’ve never had a single disagreement. In fact, our relationship has lasted much longer than many marriages…He’s a special guy, I’m sure he’s not far off, He touched me so much, he became like a brother. I remember an anecdote she told me, he was on vacation on a boat with Michel Sardo… and Sardo asked him “Can I take Robin on my next tour?” “No,” said Johnny. Nice compliment…, salutes. We are musicians, he combined us on stage. She was not a band and singer. It was him and us, all of us. One entity plays music. The best thing is not to take your eyes off him. Because you never knew where he could go. This was very exciting for him An American tour, he had imagined.“
This American tour is the subject of a documentary that can be found in the set of boxes which was previously shown in a movie theater in Los Angeles, Leticia was waiting for us in front of Jade and Joy. At the end of the session, Leticia Hallyday was very moved… “The remoteness of his presence this evening is overwhelming, and not just me. We feel that he is not far, that he is watching, and he should be very proud.”
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