Paul Dupont-Hébert was a great friend of Jean-Pierre Ferland. Without knowing that he was seeing him for the last time, he spent a great time with his accomplice of the last 50 years in the hospital a week before his death. “It was very nice, though. He recognized me and joked with his eyes like he always does,” he confided to Newspaper.
“He spoke less, but I think he wasn’t in pain. He was aware of the people around him, he was good. At 89, that’s sometimes the age for a date… He’ll be able to tell us if it’s true that God is an American (laughs) (the title of one of his songs, Editor’s note),” explains the producer gently.
photo provided by Isabelle Boutin
Telling your friend one last time
“As he didn’t talk much, I told him what I had done, what was happening, the temperature, the route I had taken. He listened. I told my friend, who nodded and listened to my tomorrow and my yesterday,” he says.
The artist’s agent considers it a great opportunity to have been able to see his companion one last time before his big departure.
“These are happy memories: his sugar shack, the parties he had at home, the meetings at the restaurant, the walks with his dog, his love for horses, food, he loved cooking so much, his ham with maple, it was quite a cook!”, he remembers.
Gilles Vigneault and the present moment
The two friends had a lot of things in common, including a love of nature, animals, flowers and others.
“We are both great friends of Gilles Vigneault. We liked the same people, the same restaurants, drinking the same wine. This is how a friendship is created,” continues the man who has accompanied the artist to countless shows.
Too upset to speak to the press, Gilles Vigneault is indeed described as a “very sensitive man” by Paul Dupont-Hébert.
“He’s very sensitive to people he knows who are of a certain age and leaving. When you’ve known people for so long, it’s painful to see them go. But Gilles is a very strong man who is not afraid of his own old age,” he says.
As for his friend Jean-Pierre, he remembers that, when he was asked questions about the aftermath, he simply replied: “I don’t care, I’m going to be dead!”
“He lived in the present, every minute, every second of every day. He was taking advantage of the present time,” he breathes.
Happy memories
Mr. Dupont-Hébert explains that being able to pay tribute today to his great friend does him the greatest good.
He will keep within him the memory of a songwriter whom the public and friends adored for his charisma, his humor, his writing talent and his great sensitivity in taking his texts and his music on a journey.
“His way of being on the boards, too. A few minutes before entering the stage, he put himself in his bubble, in his lyrics. He had a lot of fun practicing his profession. He led a great life until the end.”
