“The song ‘I give you’ is our story with Jean-Jacques Goldman”

Michael Jones is a Franco-Welsh guitarist, songwriter and singer. He is inseparable from Jean-Jacques Goldman, with whom he shared many moments, great collaborations and adventures. There was the Taï Phong group at the end of the 70s, which marked the beginning of a great friendship and from this bond were born titles like I give you, number 1 of the Top 50 for eight weeks, title which he co-wrote and extracted from the album of his sidekick Not homologated (1985). He is above all a member of the famous Fredericks-Goldman-Jones trio. Michael Jones is currently on tour throughout France. It can be found, for example, on March 10, 2023 at the Palais des Sports in Paris, on the 29th at the Zénith d’Amiens, then at the Zénith d’Orléans on September 21. He also released last December, The Goldman Legacy Volume 2, in which he notably performs, in duet with Céphaz, the song One more morning.

franceinfo: Do ​​you remember your first meeting with Jean-Jacques Goldman?

Michael Jones: Yes ! You should know that I joined the Taï Phong group to replace Jean-Jacques who did not want to tour. But then I understood why. The Taï Phong group had huge ideas and they thought they were going to be able to tour like Pink Floyd. So we had enormous machinery to play in front of 300 people. And so I met Jean-Jacques when it was time to choose the songs for the third album, with Jean Maresca who was the producer at the time. And it was an instant hit.

He withdrew from the stage and you, you are a bit binding him with the public. This public that lacks Jean-Jacques Goldman. Is it important for you precisely to create this binder, to bring these songs to life on stage?

I don’t think people miss Jean-Jacques Goldman because he still exists through his songs. But he left us his songs and I think people identify much more with the songs than with the artist himself.

Why the music?

Because I’m Welsh and you fall into it a bit when you’re little. It’s the first thing you learn in school.

What is astonishing besides, it is that your father was part of the army. He made the Normandy landings. It is the mother, moreover, that he is going to meet your mother, in Caen. I have the feeling that these are also values ​​that have been transmitted to you. What do you keep from your parents?

Love, I guess. It’s the thing we keep most often. But my father taught me a lot of things, that is to say golf. I was born on a golf course because I was born at a time when my dad was based in Berlin and so my grandfather didn’t have a permit to take my mum to the hospital and so she gave birth on the golf course.

We also have the feeling that you find it difficult to talk about yourself. It’s hard for you to put yourself forward, you’ve always been in the shadows.

In fact, it’s easier to write than to speak. So that’s why I released a book that tells me, or songs.

“It’s easier to write than to talk about yourself. It’s up to others to talk about me.”

Michael Jones

at franceinfo

When did you start writing your songs?

I must have been 11 years old. At school, I was at the back of the class during math class and I wrote texts.

A word about I give you because it’s true that it’s a song that is a must for Jean-Jacques Goldman.

In fact, Jean-Jacques said: “It tells our story. So you tell your part of our story”. And that’s it, that’s just it.

“‘I give you’ is our story with Jean-Jacques Goldman. It’s the story of two guys who come from two backgrounds, two totally different religions, who manage to get along and move forward together.”

Michael Jones

at franceinfo

When we say Michael Jones, we obviously think of the Fredericks-Goldman-Jones trio with the late Carole Fredericks. How was this trio born?

Carole was already singing with us on tour and we were driving together, Jean-Jacques and me. He told me : “This is my next album, I have to do it with a group because the texts are for several people. And so obviously there’s you, but it would take a girle”. I answered: there is Carole! He said to me: “Damn, but it’s of course !“But, I think he already knew. He just wanted me to think the same as he did.

In Legacy, precisely, there is an approach which is very important to you and which continues to be part of you. It’s the fact of constantly looking for new artists. Is that also a nod to the people who trusted you?

This is the story of passing the baton. Me, I love that the songs live, but otherwise. And these young artists interpret them differently, in their own way, with their character, their identity. And I find that very good. The songs of Jean-Jacques today, without going into the history of French culture, we take them up like a jazzman will take up jazz standards or a classical conductor will take up Chopin or Mozart. It’s kind of the same spirit. It’s to revive what we inherited from Jean-Jacques, that is to say his songs.

Going on stage is a playground, it’s what makes you want to continue music because he retired, but you don’t.

It’s what makes me live. I always remember Henri Salvador, who was a very lively person and as long as he played on stage, he was very lively. He stopped performing, he died a few months later and that haunts me.

Finally, do you have a favorite Goldman song?

Yes it’s Minority because first of all, it allowed me to meet a guitarist that I admire, who is Nono from the group Trust. And I love the text because it fits me, “When I grow up, I know what I want to do, I want to be in the minority“.

Michael Jones will be in concert, among others, on March 10 in Paris, on March 11 in Amnéville, on March 14 in Dijon, on March 17 in Chambéry, on March 21 in Lyon, on March 23 in Nice, on March 26 in Narbonne, on March 28 in Nantes, etc. …