Eddy Mitchell, a true living legend of French song, is also a notable actor in French cinema. When we talk about music, we invariably think of titles: Water mint color (1980), On the road to Memphis (1976), No boogie woogie (1976), The last session (1977) or even You can prepare black coffee (1979) and his five Victoires de la Musique.
When we talk about cinema, we remember this César for best actor for a supporting role for the film Happiness is in the meadow by Étienne Chatiliez in 1995, but also by Gaston Lapouge by Franck Apprederis (1981) or even to Wipe by Bertrand Tavernier (1991).
Eddy Mitchell spends five days with us to tell the photos of his life, the place of music, cinema and the public in this exceptional journey of more than 60 years with: 39 albums, 16 live albums, 500 songs, Victoires de la musique, millions of albums sold and a César.
He has just released a box set entitled Eddy Mitchell – The album of his life, i.e. 100 titles gathered in five CDs, or 50 in three CDs, or even a box set of vinyls. And then there is this book, Eddy Mitchell, my ideal nightclub by Alain Artaud-Macari and Marc Maret published by Hors Collection.
franceinfo: Despite the years and the success, one thing has never changed, it is your attachment to American music which has effectively become a philosophy. Does that also mean that it has always been the setting of your life?
Eddie Mitchell: Music in general, but American music more specifically because it made me discover admirable people, and whom I still admire, and which made me want to become a singer.
I wondered what allowed you to never sink. Success has tripped up more than one and you have always managed to absorb this success.
It’s not success… You know it’s as hard to digest as failure. We wonder why it works? And then, if it doesn’t work, we say to ourselves: ” Why it does not work ?“We always ask ourselves this question. I have often asked myself these questions, but I move on very quickly.
I would like us to talk about your mother because, when we think of American music, we think of her and Bill Haley’s first record, Rock Around the Clock. What did she bring you?
She brought me lots of things, of course! Good ones and also bad ones since she loved operetta. When I was little, she took me everywhere. And I remember one day we went to see Luis Mariano. Unfortunately, I didn’t know who Luis Mariano was and I was bursting into laughter when I saw him. I was a kid, I was seven or eight years old and we had to leave the room because I was laughing so hard with this guy who came in all in white, who said in his accent: ” Hello, hellorr Grrrenade“… And I didn’t walk. But hey, the fact remains that he was a big man, he was something extraordinary. I even saw his stunt doubles when he had a cold or when he was doing something else, it was Rudy Hirigoyen who replaced him. The latter was smaller than Mariano but wore the same clothes. Can you imagine? And then there was also Georges Guétary who made me howl with laughter.
So she transmitted this culture to you?
Yes, yes, she passed on this culture to me, but I kept an adorable memory of it, which was funny, and which she took at face value.
Your parents were poor and yet you retain no negative side of it, as if you had decided from the start, even as a child, that life would be good.
Yes I think. But I think I also had amazing parents. And then a great brother and sister, so that helps a lot.
So, what did your parents pass on to you?
My parents taught me to enjoy life and take it as it comes. That is to say, we take the good things and the bad things. That’s great.
You are going to attend a concert by Bill Haley and the Comets at the Olympia in Paris in 1958. This is a slap in the face.
Ah yes of course ! Today it would seem old-fashioned and perhaps even completely old-fashioned, but he and his orchestra played with the curtains closed. I remember the intro of The Saints Rock’n’roll and we were waiting for them to open the curtain! And when the curtain opened, they came running towards us. It was incredible strength.
Did you understand at that moment that you too were going to do everything to get on stage?
Not necessarily going on stage, but trying to sing yes.
It’s very surprising because in fact, as a child, you were quite shy. And you have to dare to sing, there is a kind of duality in that.
Yes, but it actually helps to fight. It fights shyness. We move on, we move forward and that is important.
What was it like at home between your father, who was a fan of America like you, and the operetta?
My father was a fan of cinema, not music. For him, it was movies and books. But music didn’t interest him much.
“At first, my parents laughed at me becoming a singer and afterwards, they were still surprised that it worked!”
Eddie Mitchellat franceinfo
I would like to talk about the title Road 66 which is a must-have title. I feel like your whole life is summed up inside this song.
Yes, because it is a magical place but which belongs to the past, since Route 66 no longer exists, so to speak. I shot a music video there, in a great location. And the guy who was renting the place ended up saying to me: “You know, everything is fake because it was built for the needs of a film. Everything is a joke.“So it hurts my heart.