This is what we call evil for good… At the end of the 1950s, Jacques Dutronc was a teenager like any other. He lives in Paris, where he was born in 1943, and was raised by intellectual parents who were very interested in art and music. His father, Pierre, an engineer, was also a pianist and encouraged young Jacques to take music lessons. But everything changes when the teenager contracts Bouillaud’s disease, at the age of 16. This complication, caused by a bacterial infection, causes very painful and inoperable rheumatism in the joints.
Jacques Dutronc, who was recently preparing to be operated on, must then remain cloistered at home for a year to heal and rest, but he takes the opportunity to learn to play the guitar. The singer borrows his brother’s and practices by reproducing the sounds and chords he hears on the radio or on records he listens to over and over. It’s the start of a great love story. Once healed and allowed to leave his home, Jacques Dutronc was determined to launch into music. With a few friends, he formed his first group, Les Tritons.
Old Rascals from adolescence
The adventure ends quickly and the friends move away. But success does not take long to arrive. Jacques Dutronc became a guitarist and songwriter in another group, El Toro et les Cyclones, and signed with the Vogue label in 1961, at the age of 18. He met the young singer Françoise Hardy, who covered one of his songs, and whom he began dating a few years later. Jacques Dutronc also works with Eddy Mitchell, whom he already knows. As a teenager, shortly before his illness, he often saw him at Golf-Drouot, a Parisian nightclub nicknamed the “temple of rock”. Romy Schneider’s former lover also met a certain… Johnny Hallyday, whose dazzling success made him want to grab the microphone and become a singer.
Today, Jacques Dutronc is discreet and no longer sings. He said goodbye to the stage by cutting short his tour with his son, Thomas Dutronc, in December 2022. Since then, he has confided suffering numerous health problems and having difficulty playing the guitar because of his fingers damaged by osteoarthritis. But even if he no longer gives concerts, his classics, It’s five o’clock, Paris is waking up At Little gardencontinue to live and be sung through the generations.
