“This is my fourth autobiography. I haven’t lived four lives, but each time there are new memories that come back to me.” So Dave tells us about How not to be in love with you, his memoirs published at the beginning of November by Talent Sport editions. If the singer delivers new confidences, after Near my house, By the way And I would like to take another tourreleased respectively in 1997, 2003 and 2012, it is also because, as he says in the foreword, “it almost came to an end”.
In January 2022, the artist fell three meters high at home. A domestic accident – he tripped while running up a flight of stairs to hang out a pair of jeans straight out of the washing machine. Four days in a coma. Once out of the situation, he noticed that his immediate memory was failing. “Sometimes I no longer remember a call, if an artist is still alive, or the names of my famous neighbors,” he laments. “Fortunately, my old memories are intact but I’m afraid I won’t remember the lines I write,” he continues.
These are now immortalized on more than three hundred pages in black ink on white paper. The artist, who will celebrate his 80th birthday on the stage of the Grand Rex, in Paris, in May 2024, retraced the thread of his memories with 20 minutes.
How are you ?
I think I’m not too bad, except that I no longer have any taste or smell following the accident. For me, who was born an epicurean, twice a day, at lunch and dinner, I “sorrow” – it’s not French but you understand what I mean. I also have other immediate memory problems related to the fall and age. For example, I receive a text message, I type the reply, then I forget to send it and then I get yelled at for not responding.
In your latest book you deplore having long been considered a “singer for young girls”. Did this weigh on you?
No it wasn’t “for girls” but “singer for girls”. “Minettes” is also the woman’s gender, that’s what’s interesting. I didn’t know the expression at the time, because, before making records, I sang in the street. I didn’t know that you could become a singer “for girls” by making records. In the 1970s, we sold a lot of records – a bit like today, Matt Pokora or people who are also there for their young men’s physiques that make girls dream. I didn’t mind it, but I told the record company that one day people were going to realize that it wasn’t quite that… (laughter)
You were then already living as a couple with Patrick Loiseau, who is also the author of your songs. Did you feel obligated to hide the truth?
What ? The gay side? No way. It’s just that it was impossible to talk about it because it didn’t sell. I often tell this anecdote which struck me. In the 1980s, the most popular Dutch daily, the Telegraaf, had published a long article on a man arrested for espionage which began on the front page and continued on page 4. In the interior pages, it was understood that he was gay. In France, the newspaper would undoubtedly have headlined: “A senior homosexual official has been arrested”. In the Netherlands, being gay is not an issue.
You also say that more recently, in the early 2000s, you were refused to participate with Patrick Loiseau in “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” »…
Yes, that’s crazy.
You didn’t have any explanations?
There was no need to ask them, I understood very well. It’s TF1. At the time, the channel perhaps thought it would achieve lower ratings.
You state in your book that people under 50 only know two songs by you, “Vanina” and “Du Côt de Chez Swann”…
Yes, it’s already twice as much as Patrick Hernandez [auteur et interprète de Born to Be Alive] but it’s still not much (laughter).
When I do a concert, people are, roughly, between 60 and 100 years old. They sometimes come with their grandchildren who barely know who I am. It’s understandable. And that is accepted – with difficulty.
Are you concerned about what will remain of you?
No, I generally answer that not being a slug, I don’t leave traces (smile). I really think what I could leave behind is a song, but not my name. Today, people cite for example The Meteque without knowing that it was Moustaki who sang it. Will therefore perhaps, preferably, remain Near Swann because Vanina is an adaptation.
What is your favorite song among all those in your repertoire?
I don’t really have one, but the one that makes the most impact in a room is Decision. It’s a song based on music by Brahms, which came from a German publisher, and for which Patrick Loiseau, who is therefore my author and my companion, wrote the lyrics. But I think – he’s not going to like this – that it’s not the text that made this piece successful but the fact that it’s impressive vocally, it’s made for the tenor that I am.
Since the start of your career, you have experienced several developments in the music industry…
Even the end!
Do you feel like this is the end?
I think the record has become an old-fashioned, obsolete object. Young people listen in streaming, artists’ remuneration amounts to a few cents per play. Vanina, I sold 40,000 copies a day. Today, a gold record is 50,000 copies, at the time, it was a million.
What about “Souvenir d’aimer”, your latest record, released in 2019?
When I went to promote this album, which was produced by Renaud, which is still original, at RTL, the program director came out to greet me and tell me that he loved the record. He said to me: “I can’t pass it, obviously, but it’s beautiful!” » I wanted to strangle him. Why can’t he pass it? Because I’m too old. Nostalgia radio stopped broadcasting songs from the 1970s. Nostalgia now begins in the 1980s, it’s commercial obviously, because those who are the target were 10 years old at that time. This is a form of sectarianism that is annoying, even if it is understandable on a purely commercial level.
Do artists now have to rely on their concerts to earn income?
Fortunately. And that suits me, because that’s what I like best about my job. On stage, we forget all the misfortune we have. I often cite the example of Annie Cordy. I did an “Age Tendre” tour with her. She limped all day because of a knee problem, but on stage she danced like she was 17.
We’re happy for an hour, an hour and a half – or, if we’re Salvatore Adamo, three hours – and what’s more, we get a check at the end.
Which artists from the younger generation do you appreciate?
I really like Zaz, because she has an American tone, a bit like Brenda Lee, a bit hoarse. I also really like Vianney, I received him in one of my shows [ « Du côté de chez Dave », qu’il a présenté de 2014 à 2016 sur France 3] before his music works. He is pleasant to be around but I am not very sensitive to what he writes. He’s an original talent and that’s the main thing. Claudio Capéo is an accordionist who sings quite well, he has a nice voice. It’s old-fashioned, what he does, but it’s popular today, so so much the better.
In your memoirs, you also mention Slimane…
Slimane sings well. The song with which he will participate in Eurovision [Mon amour] seems to me to have real possibilities to finally succeed Marie Myriam. Not long ago, I was chatting with her and she said she couldn’t wait for another Frenchman to win again so she could stay at home. She stopped singing when her husband died and she would like to stop being “the Eurovision singer”. I wish Slimane good luck. The song is vocally interesting. For the competition, she is not called too much.
You almost took part in Eurovision in 1969, right?
I took part in the preselections in the Netherlands. But it was Lenny Kuhr who won and she went on to win Eurovision, except it was a year with four winners. She was singing By Troubadour, she’s a nice girl. She still opened for Brassens at Bobino.
You commented on Eurovision with Marc-Olivier Fogiel in 2001 and 2002…
It’s a very good memory. At the time, I didn’t particularly want to do his show, “You Can’t Please Everyone”, because, like many people, I had a bit of a hasty judgement. He was called a pit bull because he cut the guests off. A TV programmer told me that we were made to get along. When I learned that he loved Salvatore Adamo, I thought that someone who loved Adamo couldn’t be bad (laughter). I did the show, it went very well and we became friends.
And your Eurovision comments made an impression…
We were saying impossible things. The German singer was blind. I said that she was terribly poorly dressed and that it was normal because she couldn’t see anything. I apologized afterwards. We commented on two editions and got kicked out.
You will be 80 years old on May 4, 2024, and you will perform a concert for the occasion on May 21. Are you looking forward to it?
For the first time in my life, I am going to do the Grand Rex. I had seen Nougaro there and I always thought it would be great for me to perform in that venue one day.
What can the public expect?
I really want to make songs that are very seventies, which were good sellers at the time and which people who like what I do know. They will not be disappointed. I never understood that a singer performs his entire latest album in concert. The public is especially waiting for the old songs. From the last album, I’ll just do one song about my gay friends who died of AIDS, and The Girl with Two Dadsto please Marc-Olivier Fogiel who has two children born from surrogacy.
You say that you carefully choose the order in which you perform your songs on stage. Is this really the case?
Yes, I believe that by doing Godspell I went to the university of song. This musical has been performed more than 700 times with, among others, Daniel Auteuil and Armande Altaï [au début des années 1970]. This is really a dosage to take into account.
I am quite proud to have “created” the “EFGH” formula: emotion, madness, generosity, humor. For me, these are the makings of a good show.
In concert, between two songs, I try to be funny, but sometimes I get it wrong. In 2019, singing My heart is sick, I ran into the room, did anything, and I saw the audience I had in front of me. I got back on stage and said, “You and I have one thing in common: we can’t die young anymore. » This caused total silence. It wasn’t funny at all. They were seniors and they didn’t want to be reminded that we are all going to die. I find it funny.