Patrick Bruel is one of the essential artists on the French scene. Over the years, he has built his career with eponymous titles. He also met many personalities and made friends with certain people like the captain.
Between Johnny Hallyday and Patrick Bruel, it is a great story of friendship which lasted 20 years. When the death of Johnny Hallyday was announced on December 5, 2017, the father of Léon and Oscar was heartbroken. In the columns of Télé-Loisirs, the singer confided about deep friendship which linked him to the singer.
The two artists linked by a common passion
According to him, the father of Jade and Joy Hallyday was “a star, a legend, an exceptional artist”but also a loved one. “I remember our first meeting: it was in 1984, I came to see him in concert at the Zénith. I was accompanied by Monique Le Marci [la directrice de l’antenne de RTL,
ndlr] and we went to greet him in his dressing room. And there, he told me very kindly: ‘You have talent, you will go far’. I didn’t even imagine that he would know my songs then. Subsequently, our paths often crossed and we established a friendly and affectionate bond.”he revealed.
The two artists also had the opportunity to perform together several times: “It was always very impressive to sing with him, especially that he liked to challenge you. But when we managed to hold the note as long as he did, then we met his gaze, always full of kindness. I had as much fun singing with him at the Parc des Princes or the Stade de France as at birthday dinners or even at my own wedding.”he continued.
Patrick Bruel: “We measure friendship by actions”
While Patrick Bruel was infected with coronavirus during the first confinement, Johnny Hallyday was “a solid friend he could count on” : “We measure friendship by actions and I was able to realize this on 2 or 3 occasions. I hope
to have also been up to it with him. When he invited me on stage at the Stade de France in 1998, I was going through a complicated period, I had lots of doubts and he put me back in the spotlight in front of 80,000 people and all the media. I also believe that he never missed a single one of my back-to-school concerts, in Paris or in Los Angeles where he convinced me to buy a house not far from his!”she explained.
Patrick Bruel has always spent special moments with the Taulier. “He was very shy, the more people there were, the more he closed off. I was therefore proud that he regularly called me to have lunch with him one-on-one: I then made him talk about his beginnings with his colleagues yéyés, behind the scenes of his shows, his view on the profession, but also its ups and downs. We laugh a lot“,
she confided.
The singer very close to Johnny Hallyday
The death of Johnny Hallyday in 2017 deeply upset Patrick Bruel. In January 2023, he returned to the moving tribute he paid to Johnny Hallyday during the rocker’s funeral in 2017: “I never saw these images again. I had written this in the night when he left. I didn’t think I would say this text publicly. I showed it to the family and they said to me: ‘But he must read it tomorrow’. This farewell was movingit was strong”he remembered.
From the rocker, he keeps precious memories and is full of praise on his qualities. “Johnny says will, perseverance, work, it says desire. There is no word that sums it up better than the one that Jean-Jacques wrote. Desire, the desire to want “, he concluded.
