Eddy Mitchell is one of the most emblematic French singers. He is also a lyricist and actor. The public discovered him with his first group, Les Chaussettes Noires, in 1961. The following year, the one who was still called Claude Moine started his solo career with an increasingly large audience. . Rock, country and this style of crooner that sticks to his skin, seduced. But when we think of Eddy Mitchell, we also think of the show The last sessiondevoted to the classics of American cinema which he presented on France 3. The one who is now part of the family photo has just published an autobiographical comic strip with Ralph Meyer Lilacs in Belleville, published by Dargaud.
franceinfo: Your career in music might not have existed if you had chosen your first passion, drawing. She never left you. Lilacs in Belleville is a short story you wrote, illustrated with 20 watercolors by Ralph Meyer. It was he who had already made the two covers of the two volumes, The same tribe. This is called a winning team, who found themselves?
Eddie Mitchell: I don’t know if she wins, but in any case, I greatly admire what Ralph does, I think he’s one of the best of his generation. We came to an agreement, we get along well and it works well.
It tells your life. Is it difficult to relate? Because I know you have a lot of modesty.
In this case, it was not difficult because it was a tribute to my father. So it’s not that I’m withdrawn, but it was much more focused on him. I keep a love of cinema and literature that he instilled in me. And then to take life as it comes. That is to say, he never had a lot of money in his pocket, but he had enough to buy his tobacco, peanuts, whatever. ! But he wasn’t a money man at all.
When you discover this book, you realize how often you were alone. How did you experience this loneliness?
I lived it rather well because I took good care of it. I went to the cinema a lot. I read a lot, both comics and books. And so I didn’t feel like I was alone.
Let’s talk about these readings. Did they train you, forge you, make you grow?
I dreamed of being a designer, of making comics. I was lucky enough to live on Boulevard d’Algérie and above it was Boulevard Sérurier. Jean-Claude Mézières lived there and had his small workshop. One day I knocked on his door. I said: here, I present to you my drawings.
“Showing my drawings to the designer Jean-Claude Mézières, he said to me: ‘It’s interesting, but you have to do the Beaux-Arts’. As I didn’t have the means, I told myself that I was going to try something else.”
Eddy Mitchellat franceinfo
VSThis short story is the story of little Claude Moine, of course. You lived in the upper Belleville district and grew up in a modest environment. What are you craving at this time? ?
It’s the drawing. The drawings made by Jijé, who made the Spirouseries jerry spring. I was very impressed by Jijé until the day I met him, it was a great meeting.
You dreamed of entering the world of drawing. What makes you suddenly let go, apart from the fact that you had to go to the Boulle school?
It’s a question of resources, that’s all. My mother wanted me to work. I didn’t really want to work, but at the time, when you had your school certificate, you could leave school and go to work. I had it early, at 13 and a half, and I worked straight away.
The profession of singer comes through what? Through these jukebox discoveries that you describe perfectly?
Yes, through what I heard. The first time I heard rock around the clockBill Haley, it upset me all the same because at the time, the radio was Tino Rossi, Mariano, that didn’t interest me.
That said, we feel that through the music, you have found yourself. music saved you ?
Ah yes, yes, I don’t know what I would have become. I don’t think I would have gone rogue. Certainly not, no, but we don’t know what we can become.
“Music saved me, that’s true.”
Eddy Mitchellat franceinfo
Music brought me the independent side, to do what I wanted. And that’s great and it doesn’t stop.
In this book, you are called little Claude, Claude Moine. Then you decide to call yourself Eddy Mitchell. It’s a nod to Eddie Constantine on the one hand, and Mitchell because it sounded very American.
That’s what the record company wanted. It was impossible for a rock singer to be called Claude Moine !