The artist who suffers from lung cancer, wishes, just past sixty, to make “a kind of balance sheet” by evoking his career, his life and his health. He confided in franceinfo.
Florent Pagny publishes, Wednesday April 5, Pagny by Florent published by Fayard. An autobiography, co-written with Emmanuelle Cosso, where he delivers at 61 years, on his life and his career. He recounts how he learned he had lung cancer assures that “mentally the disease did not win the case” and returns to the cover of the book. A black and white photo of him blowing smoke from a cigarette. “It’s not provocation”, assures the artist, it is “a gift that I give myself, because the photo is beautiful.”
>> Cancer, “greatest song” and the “age of the balance sheet”: what to remember from the interview with Florent Pagny on franceinfo
France Info: what made you want to write this book?
Florent Pagny: It was actually this 60-year-old gang that got me into all of this. When I prepare the 60th anniversary tour, I don’t know what will happen afterwards because I honestly have the impression that a page is about to be turned. But it’s pretty vague. Finally, in this page that is turning, I could perhaps take the opportunity to make a sort of assessment. I won’t do it afterwards because I might be older and more lazy.
“I said to myself that if it was to be done, it was now! I did not know that this project was going to evolve in this way. “
Florent Pagnyat franceinfo
Why did you opt for a black and white photo of yourself where you smoke for the cover of the book?
First, this photo is beautiful. It may pose a reading problem because I smoke. It is an act that I practiced. All the people who could enter into my intimacy have necessarily seen me in this situation. This image can never be taken again since in any case, it is behind me. I quit smoking, of course. It belongs, like all this book to the past. What I am experiencing today is still new. This book still provokes other things in me, it’s wonderful. How lucky am I. I present this cover saying that it’s not provocation, it’s almost a gift that I give myself because the photo is beautiful.
This photo, you say, could not be taken today, because of your lung cancer. The disease, precisely, you live with, but it is as if it were not part of you.
Mentally, the disease has not yet won the case! I “tune in” to other things and don’t think about them, even when I go to bed. It’s a great chance, I don’t know if it’s by my nature. Life is fleeting for everyone anyway. I tell myself that with all that I have been through, everything is fine! Things can be difficult, but if we know how to take them, if we accept and face them, we understand better what is happening.
“You have to be able to get away with it. It’s the spice of life even if this one is a little spicy!”
Florent Pagnyat franceinfo
How did you feel all these testimonies and these marks of love? Was it difficult because you are very modest?
It’s extraordinary. It’s not hard. This may surprise and it is impressive! And then, as you precisely have a reaction to everything that happens, you have to send them back. You also have to understand why all this is happening and where it must take you. I end up saying to myself, maybe I have something to do, I can be useful for something.