Eddy Mitchell's love affair with the public began six decades ago, first with Black Socks and the title Danielathen solo. Time has not altered his pleasure of going on stage, nor that of singing. Let it be said, he has three unalterable passions, and inseparable from the artist that he is: Jigé's drawing and comic strips, rock and American cinema, and more precisely westerns. Today, Eddy Mitchell is back with a 40th album Friends. Literally, it means 'friends', or 12 titles dressed in his own way and said with this voice which has not aged a bit, accompanied by friends like Souchon, Chamfort, Sheller, Obispo, Sanseverino. With lots of first times.
franceinfo: The album starts with the title In a Pontiac convertibleit's an invitation to travel a road in a convertible with the roads of Nevada as a backdrop. I have the impression that there is a starting point of your career in this album and in particular with this title.
Eddy Mitchell : Everyone sees noon at their door, so to speak. No, because it is a text that Souchon and I concocted. It's more the story of a robbery that goes wrong.
There's inevitably a Bonnie & Clyde side, but the backdrop is…
These are the great outdoors.
The great outdoors, adventure too, in fact it's the title that follows just behind. I have the impression that it was the driving force of your life.
“We all dream of adventures.”
Eddy Mitchellat franceinfo
We all dream of wide open spaces, unforgettable people, fantastic girls, exceptional settings. So we dream about it and I put it in several songs.
This record shows how you never forgot where you came from. Your father got up at 4 a.m. to go to work. When he came back, obviously, homework was the cinema. We realize to what extent your father was this pillar in your life. Was it he who showed you the way, what you shouldn't lose sight of?
My father introduced me, not to music, it was more my mother, but he introduced me a lot to reading. Because at home, we read both Sartre and Peter Cheney so I was aware of everything. He introduced me to cinema, but also to many other things ultimately.
You had a friend who worked at a major publishing house.
Yes, a cousin. My father went to get the books in a backpack every week and they were books that were missing pages or were going to waste. We had the right to everything.
When you look closely, whether it’s through comics or literature. What we understand is that you had the need to leave the house very early on, first in your imagination.
Oh yes, because I really didn't want to work and my mother forced me a little. When I started working, I was barely 14 years old because I had passed my school certificate. In my time, who said: “study certificate” meant “right to work” and especially the right to no longer go to school. It was great, but we regret the studies a little bit afterwards, even if at the moment, we are very happy.
Alain Souchon worked with you on this album and you signed the title together, Boogie Bougon. What does this title mean to you?
“The song 'Boogie Bougon' means that my friend Alain Souchon saw me on stage and observed me well and that you still have to have a certain perspective to sing this kind of thing.”
Eddy Mitchellat franceinfo
You should know that to write it, you also need to have perspective. And that, well done!
Succeeding in adapting a song remains special even if it is one of your specialties.
A song, if you really listen to it, you want to hear it in French. There are lots of songs like that that we want to hear, we say to ourselves: “Hey in French, it might sound as good or better, or maybe worse” and then we give up. That's a fun job to do, but we often move away from the original text. It doesn't matter, the important thing is that the result counts.
How does the little boy you were on this journey look? ?
I'm not unhappy. The boy isn't unhappy, it's true!
Is he proud?
Proud ? Maybe not, but not unhappy. Not bad for a little guy from Belleville, you're not doing badly.
We feel that this album is different, that it tells you so much.
It is different because there is not a composition, of course, by my old companion, Pierre Papadiamandis. He would have liked the finishing side, the magical side that emerges from this operation, between all these wonderful composers who accompanied me in this work.
I have one last question: do you like the world we live in today?
Oh yes, I prefer this world to that of my youth.
