On June 1, 2023, the book by Sam Bernett, Johnny Circus – Johnny Hallyday’s nightmare tour, published by the Archipelago. A book in which the author recounts the “fatal encounter” between the Taulier and Nanette Workman, American singer traumatized by a rape who unfortunately sank into drugs 10 years before meeting the rocker. Addicted to illicit products, the Brooklyn-born star trained the interpreter ofLight the fire in his ways.
At the time, Johnny Hallyday was married to Sylvie Vartan. “At the beginning of 1970, she landed in England to provide some voice sessions for sacred monsters – Joe Cocker, the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Elton John. During a recording session, Johnny, passing through London to record his album, is immediately attracted by this tall and very beautiful singer with steely blue eyes. And then her voice. Rocky, powerful. The French rocker is glued to the spot”, writes Sam Bernett. An extract relayed by our colleagues from Entertainment TV. “At the end of the London recording sessions, Nanette flew to Paris. Hired by Hallyday, she fell in love with the guitarist Rolling, with whom she lived for more than a year before crunching Johnny. This was the beginning of a destructive passion and a descent into hell. Nanette and Johnny do not leave each other – professionally for the moment”.
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“I slept an hour a night”
Admiring, the one who will marry Laeticia Hallyday years later was full of praise for Nanette Workman. According to him, the singer “was a raw musical genius. A mix of Piaf and Tina Turner. […] She was a tigress… Nanette had crazy talent, that’s what I fell in love with.” A love story that will end up turning into a tragedy. “She hurt me a lot. She was the one who got me into drugs. Our breakfasts started with a line of coke. I slept an hour a night,” he confided.
According to Gilles Lhote, author of Johnny: The warrior, “The rocker runs on amphetamines and cocaine. A rhythm so tense that he laughingly nicknamed himself ‘Captain Sniff’! […] With Nanette, they were doing line contests on the hood of the Rolls. […] Johnny had told me that, in the delirium that the two lovers lived every day, the challenge was open and that it was always necessary to do harder. That was the rule of this bullshit game.” “I knew it was the backing singers, Madeline Bell and Doris Troy, who were supplying the drugs. That Nanette was his worst enemy. That she was destroying him morally and physically. She was the one who hurt him the most.” , added Johnny Hallyday’s friend, Sacha Rhoul. A destructive relationship that will end with the Johnny Circus tour.
VB