“A catastrophic state”: Jean-Claude Camus recounts the last moments of Johnny Hallyday on his deathbed

In September 2016, Johnny Hallyday learned terrible news. Stage 4 lung cancer metastasizes to his liver, stomach and pancreas. The diagnosis does not really alarm the singer. The latter, then aged 73, had already triumphed twice over cancer, one in the colon, the other in the prostate. His days are actually numbered.

The fight begins at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. After leaving the hospital, the artist flew to Paris with his family. Laeticia wants to extend her husband’s life for a few more years. He would like to go back on tour. Nothing and no one can convince the Taulier not to hit the road again. From Lille to Paris, via Dijon, the disease invariably takes over.

Johnny Hallyday: his last meeting with his producer Jean-Claude Camus

In December 2017, Jean-Claude Camus received a call from Laeticia Hallyday. Jade and Joy’s mother asks her to visit her husband in their house. Marnes-la-Coquette where the singer fights against illness. “I come into the room as if everything is fine and I say to him: ‘You’ve lost a little weight. You should perk up because you still have vocals to finish on the next album.’“the producer remembers today in Chez Jordan.

And to continue: “He looks at me – I had a white sweater: ‘You have a task.’ Those were his last words.” Jean-Claude Camus knew then thathe would never see his friend againdied 48 hours later.
“He had lost too much weight. He was in a catastrophic state”describes the one that a question continues to torment seven years later: did Johnny Hallyday know that he was going to die?

Johnny Hallyday: did he know he didn’t have much longer?

If Jean-Claude Camus does not know how to answer this question, Laura Smet has a strong opinion. “I think he didn’t knowsays the daughter of Johnny Hallyday and Nathalie Baye in an interview recently given to Paris Match. And he had very afraid of deaththat’s why he hated the night so much, just like I hate seeing the day fall.”

In the story of her father’s last days, the actress who became a mother in turn remembers having to
hide a secret from your father. “At the Bizet clinic, David, his wife and I were told that
it was overshe mentions. We were also told […] that he was going to be in palliative care at home.”
The artist not knowing it, “We shouldn’t have told him that.”