While the investigation progresses in the Kendji Girac affair, who is definitely out of the woods according to his entourage, Purepeople returns to these celebrities who, like him, found themselves in stories involving firearms and whose outcome was not dramatic. From Pascal Obispo to Johnny Hallyday via Bob Marley or 50 Cent, a review of those who were shot… and who survived.
Pascal Obispo, Johnny Hallyday, Bob Marley… Known or little-known stories of these stars who were shot
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“Wounded by bullets, singer Kendji Girac is between life and death.“; “The French winner of The Voice who worked with Mika, seriously injured by gunshot to the chest“. On this Monday morning, April 22, the drama, of which we know better the unfolding but not yet all the details, made the headlines in France but also in England. A very well-known artist victim of such an injury, that does not doesn’t happen every day.
Every day, no. But history proves that the profession of artist sometimes conceals unsuspected dangers…
One of the most famous cases concerns Bob Marley. On December 3, 1976, the singer was quietly finishing his dinner when seven armed men burst into his opulent villa in Kingston, Jamaica. Gunshots are going off in all directions. Fifty six in total. The reggae star collapsed, hit in the arm and chest. His wife Rita was shot in the head, and his manager, Don Taylor, was hit in five places. By a miracle, all of them survive their injuries. On the other hand, almost fifty years have passed and we still do not know the identity of the perpetrators of the shooting and their motivations. Attempted political assassination by Jamaican opponents, implications of the CIA? No one knows, only two days later, the interpreter ofI Shot the Sheriff, one of whose grandsons was found dead, was on stage to give a big concert!
Johnny Hallyday: “You hear a whistle, it has a strange effect”
In France, our national rock ‘n’ roll star, Johnny Hallyday also experienced a similar misadventure. However, he was luckier. At the time, the affair was not publicized. It had not made the headlines either when he revealed it in 2009 in the columns of the newspaper Provence. In promotion for the film Revengeby Johnny To, in which he plays a thug, a journalist questions him on his links with the Marseille environment. Johnny says: “For a very long time, I had a friend named Robert the Black, who was my protector, who was in the mafia. (…) When I had problems with people from the Middle, it was someone who always sorted things out for me.“During this same interview, our colleague asks the youth idol if he has ever been shot… His response bursts out: “Yes. I don’t know by whom. It was outside a restaurant. (…) It has a strange effect, you hear a whistle and you see a piece of door jumping next to you when you leave the restaurant. It makes a strange impression.“Even if the singer, who had confided to having lived a life of suffering, does not specify it, we suppose that the criminals therefore missed their target. They, on the other hand, may have had problems. Johnny, laconic, concludes in effect his words thus: “I called Black Robert and we never heard from him again.“
Pascal Obispo was not in Marseille, but in Corsica when he saw, literally, death up close. He was in fact hit just above the eye by a rifle shot, as he told Michel Cymes in 2019 on the show It won’t come out of herebroadcast on France 2. The facts occurred in 1997.”A story of jealousy“, explains Obispo. A fan of the singer would have in fact fueled the anger of her companion by telling him: “Obispo, I do it whenever I want!“In a rage, the man then drew a pellet gun and fired at the scene.”If the bullet had gone two centimeters lower, I would have lost an eye“, confides Pascal Obispo, adding that the man had also shot his foot and his musicians. The singer will wait 22 years before returning to the Isle of Beauty…
50 cent: nine bullets in the skin!
If rappers often engage in violent verbal jousts, sometimes the harm they inflict on themselves goes beyond words… The Weasel can attest to this. In February 2013, his rental car was targeted twice by shots from a 22 long rifle. The singer had just returned home when his driver saw a man running towards the vehicle then shooting him. Alerted by the gunshots, La Fouine left his home and called the police. However, no one was injured in this shooting which took place when tension was at its height between the three French rap stars: La Fouine, Rohff and Booba, who has since been indicted in another case…
‘It happened so fast that I couldn’t fight back… I was scared from start to finish… I was looking in the rearview mirror thinking, “damn, someone shot me in face! It’s burning, it’s burning, it’s burning!“‘The testimony is that of 50 Cent, Curtis James Jackson, his real name. On May 24, 2000, the famous rapper was with a friend in a car. They were chatting and listening to music. Suddenly a vehicle stopped at their height. The window lowers, revealing the barrel of a 9 mm revolver. The singer is hit in both legs, arm, hand, hip, torso and left cheek. But he will get through it. Even doing very well, since the drama will increase his notoriety tenfold and the accident will even modify his voice, giving him an easily recognizable identity. The bullet which passed through his cheek actually entered his mouth where a surgeon preferred to leave it partly. Consequence: a swollen tongue, a hoarser voice, less fluid speech and ultimately, a 50 cent sound which will be its trademark and will make it successful, despite excesses…
In any case, he can boast of having been lucky… Since 1987, around the world, more than 80 rappers have been shot dead. Among them, Tupac ShakurThe Notorious BIG or XXXTentacion.
