Portrait

I will continue as before, with spirit and dynamism! The new album has just come out.  I like to use songs as commentary. I would not have liked to just sing my old hits.  Moreover, the new disc is successful and selling well throughout France.  I'll be going to Olympia too.

Why Olympia?

It's where I started. I performed several 'Musicoramas' with Europe 1 Radio and it is the first hall I filled as a star in 1967. I feel like I really climbed the ladder there whereas today, a kid has one hit song and he is at Olympia...

You write songs which are so perfectly observed, one could learn them at school. That must require a huge effort, apart from your talent of course...

I have not written a large number of songs.  In fact I have only penned 360 songs throughout my career, alone, by hand, like a big boy. I have always worked alone as I have never found anyone as twisted as me to write things as I write them!

One remembers your words very well...

If you come to Olympia, you will see that the whole audience knows all the songs by heart! People often say to me: "I did not realise I knew so many songs of your songs!"  It seems my songs are known by the youngsters as well as the old guys!

Is this because your lyrics are timeless and that you don't sing about current affairs?

I do not do political cabaret.  I won't write a song on the latest political crisis or scandal! On the other hand, Lili or Mélangez vous, will always be current, talking as they do of the state of society.


But you nevertheless make people laugh...

The secret of the humorous songs is that they gently probe the problem which hurts. Tonton Cristobal, that all the children sang at the time, relates to the family, money, hypocrisy, with the uncle who leaves empty handed and who returns with plenty of money and is welcomed with open arms. Same for Cuisse de mouche, Fleur de Banlieue where "his size is thinner than the retired old man".
The last album, La Petite Infirmière is on the same topic. I write with derision, and to be successful at that it is not easy.

How did this love for words come to you - we know you are connoisseur of Léautaud - that you enjoy the sense of derision

Through reading and also because I have the great misfortune to be lucid. To be lucid is a disaster. Brassens said: "I would like to have the faith of the coal merchant, to believe and be as thick as a plank at the same time".  It is a misfortune to be a seeker, but an author who does not ask questions has nothing to say! I quickly understood that it was better to keep questioning. This is what motivated my last book (Le Café du Pont, N.D.L.R.), where I was observer of life at the cafe counter. I saw and heard everything and one learns from these things. My most recent songs are a testimony of the times and who knows, perhaps they will be learned in schools in twenty years time. I have, I'm happy to say, just had a twelfth school named after me. It is a unique feeling.  Brassens and Brel did not live to see their names on schools and it is a pity.

You are a great epicurean and gourmet, in love with the good things in life, and you also cook...

As soon as you speak about wine or foie gras, people think of you as a fat pig! On stage, I lose half of what I ate in a week. I walk in the forests, I run by the river when I fish, I swim, I play tennis... to appreciate the good moments in life, like love, gastronomy, nature, etc... There's no need to eat 3 kilos of mushrooms to know that they are good.  To know love, there's no point in having ten girls per day, if you look after one well, already it's not bad! All is relative. What has always motivated me is that even if society evolves, the problems are still the same. 20 years ago, Le Zizi was a hit because of all the inhibitions which we had with regard to sex. On the other hand, in my latest album, the song Le Tabou du sexe, it is the reverse of that today, all and anything goes. If you are not homosexual or transexual, you are nothing!  In the refrain, I say: "A man with a woman, it's hardly done any more, but try it and you'll see it's not bad at all".  And people laugh.

You like to share your bon vivant tastes and your love of the good things...

I will not open a bottle of Petrus all alone! Today, the only times I light a cigar are when I share one between friends. For the life that I live, it is necessary that I choose my moment well to smoke.

Who turned you on to the cigar?

When I first went to Switzerland on tour, a buddy took me along to Davidoff. I was not really a smoker and Zino advised me to try cigars of modest size. I was 23 or 25 yearsold. Zino took great pleasure in showing me all his treasures, like Gerard today... I never smoked cigars in great quantities. At one time, I smoked maybe twenty a month, but today it is far less  because it plays on my vocal cords.

You are exclusively a Havana man?

Oh yes! If one drinks little, one should drink well, and it's the same for the cigar. I like Bolivar, Romeo y Julieta, Partagas Lusitanias once or twice per year, Montecristo A, four or five times a year and Cohiba.

In your book of recipes, you speak about brandies and you also pay homage to the collection of armagnacs of Darroze. Is this what you like to drink with your cigar?

They go very well together, like wines and food. Saint-Emilion is better with saucy dishes than with roasted meats, which call more for robust wines, or a Péssac-Léognan.

Wiil you republish your famous "Petit Perret Gourmand", which remains one of the most successful recipes books?

We've sold almost 400 000 copies. I need to look at the wines which I recommended and which are no longer available, and will surely add some newrecipes.

This article was first published in Club Cigar