Stone is a singer and actress, inseparable from the duo Stone and Charden which she formed in the early 70s and which enjoyed significant success in France, notably with the titles: Adventure become cult, let the music go, The price of matches or Made in Normandy, all number one. Unfortunately, Éric Charden left us on April 29, 2012. And to pay tribute to him, ten years after his death, she released a compilation of 22 tracks: Stone and Charden.
franceinfo: What do you keep from Éric Charden, from your intimate, personal and professional relationship?
Stone: But good ! It was a very carefree, very happy time. We were very much in love, so everything was fine. There was no problem.
A great meeting! This compilation and the enthusiasm it arouses show that Stone and Charden have become cults. A couple anchored in the collective memory of the French music scene. What does all this mean to you? People are really on the lookout and there.
It was very amazing.
I would never have imagined at the time, that 50 years later, we are still talking about these songs, that they would remain so present, especially in people’s hearts.
It’s true that by doing shows, you realize that it’s completely linked to the events of life, joyful, happy. It’s always related to parties, birthdays, lots of things!
You were born: ‘Annie Gautrat’, a bit into music with your mother who was an operetta singer. Is it she who will pass on the love of music to you?
My mom was a song lover. She sang very well and she always took me to shows and she was very into the variety of the time.
As a child, your friends already nicknamed you: ‘Little Stone’ because of your hairstyle. That’s what gave you your stage name, Stone. Was it important to find one?
It was also a way to stand out a bit because it’s true that you had to find a look and I came up with this idea. I stole the hairstyle from Brian Jones and then the nickname of my friends, “little Stone”, it is necessarily “Stone” which remained.
In 1966, you will participate in a “Miss Beatnik” contest, which you will win. Your blondness and your blue eyes will make more than one crack and in particular a member of the jury called Éric Charden. It’s a thunderbolt ?
No way. Absolutely not. It took longer. No, Eric hadn’t even voted for me! The first few times, I didn’t really see him as someone approachable. It took a little time for us to get to know each other and where he was very strong was that he announced to me that he was a songwriter and I was waiting to find someone to make songs. He arrived at the right time.
You will fall in love with each other. It’s going to be a very, very fusional, very strong love story. Was it passion after all?
Yes completely. We were very happy. Everything was going fine. We had the chance to earn a good living, even before we made the duo since the duo was born five years after our marriage.
How did this duo come about?
So copying Sonny and Cher a bit, that was kind of the idea. I was under contract with a record company and then we were on a song with Éric, who at the time was working with Thomas and Riva, his favorite authors. They wrote a song called: The only baby who doesn’t cry and someone suggested to Éric to intervene in the song, to put a voice because at the beginning, it was a song for me, all alone. At that time, we said:Well, let’s try, we’ll see what happens”. So there. And we were the first surprised by the enthusiasm for this song. And then from there, we said to ourselves now we will have to do a full-fledged duet song!
It will give: The adventure. It’s funny because he’s going to make Carlos and Joe Dassin listen to this song, who are going to say that it’s not going to work. But, it’s really going to be a hit by becoming number one.
Success comes from the public.
At the very beginning, when it came out on the radio, everyone threw it in the trash. It was crippling. We were lucky enough to do a little TV show like that, because the press secretary was trying to get us to promote us anyway. Then there was this TV show that was the trigger. People started asking for the disc.
No one expected you to be able to break up after all. Was it hard to live for you?
No, not so much. We weren’t going to pretend to stay together. At some point, the separation was made and then lo and behold, we had to move on. We had nothing to reproach ourselves for, neither one nor the other, so the separation was smooth.
How would you define this duo, Stone and Charden, knowing that it touched several generations?
I would never have considered that at the time, because it was really unthinkable. There was a magic side, really incredible.