I’Johnny Hallyday’s shadow has always been covered by the bulging muscles of an attentive Cerberus. After Sacha Rhoul, Alan Coriolan or Jo Rodriguez, Patrick Roussel became in 1999 the essential companion of all the releases of the biggest star in France. Driver, bodyguard and confidant in spite of himself, this former rugby player remained for seventeen years in the service of the “boss”.
Appreciated by Johnny, Patrick Roussel was less appreciated by the Hallydean public, who often reproached him for his sinister air as soon as a fan approached a little too close to the idol. After five and a half years of silence, the “pitbull” with a Toulouse accent comes out of the shadows by publishing Everyone called him Johnny (Éditions Mareuil), an uncompromising book, which testifies to his extraordinary life in the service of the rocker, whom he saw more often than his own children for nearly twenty years.
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Patrick Roussel: First, because Johnny’s death hurt me. I needed time to digest. For five and a half years, I have seen many people speak or write. I read and listened, even those who knew Johnny from afar. From now on, I have settled down, I have a calm life, so it was time to deliver my truth, and my daily experience with Johnny. For more than ten years, I followed the Hallyday family everywhere and I lived their life from the inside, like no one else.
Was this book a need for you or a simple way to respond to requests?
I especially wanted to do it for myself, to leave a mark. I am often told that my life is not ordinary. With this job, my family life has been complicated. Driver and bodyguard of Johnny Hallyday, we don’t do it halfway. Either we are present at 100%, or we resign. I would like my children to understand who the star I was working for was, and why I let myself be sucked in like this.
In Los Angeles, my only interlocutors were the Hallyday family… and the French paparazzi!
You knew a Johnny in the intimacy, that few people saw. How would you describe this extraordinary man?
Johnny was a calm, composed and reserved man, who hated conflict. This did not prevent his temper, because he was still Johnny Hallyday. However, I never saw him play the star. Never ! I happened to see him respond positively to requests that, myself, I would have refused. Besides, Johnny was humble. About another artist, I never heard him say: “I sing better than him. He liked to be left alone to do his job: sing. In his life, he was alone when he decided or with people when he wanted.
In everyday life, did he prefer to be Jean-Philippe Smet or Johnny Hallyday?
I think he ended up forgetting who Jean-Philippe Smet was. Inevitably, as soon as he put his nose outside, he was Johnny Hallyday. When people are camping in front of your gate every day, what else can you do?
By reading your book, we understand how difficult it was to be at the service of Johnny Hallyday, because of the personal investment required (very long hours, non-existent holidays, etc.). How were you doing?
It happened naturally, because I enjoyed working for him. Over the years, the situation began to weigh on me, especially when we moved to Los Angeles. There, I didn’t know anyone but him and I didn’t speak English. My only interlocutors were the family… and the French paparazzi! But before that period, I didn’t even realize how many hours I was doing.
And Johnny, did he realize that?
No, I do not think so. Or else he was ignoring.
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I have an anecdote about it – it’s not in the book, by the way. In the early 2000s, when the French government adopted the 35-hour reform, Johnny went to Balzac, his restaurant, for a meeting with his partner Claude Bouillon. In the car, Johnny said to me: “They bother us with these 35 hours, and me then, if I had to do 35 hours? Naturally, I answer him jokingly: “You’ll have to work, then, boss!” There was a blank in the car, and then Johnny smiled. I was lucky to have this very simple relationship with him. I spoke to him without thinking, as if he were an ordinary boss. I was the only one talking to him normally.
In your book, you talk about jealousy of those around you…
Johnny was my employer, but over time, something stronger developed, which I would call complicity. This created jealousies with people around him, especially when Johnny bought a house to accommodate me in Los Angeles. It made people cringe, but I hadn’t asked for anything!
You tell a bizarre story. One day, in the middle of Paris, at the Porte d’Auteuil crossroads, Johnny asks you to stop the car, because he saw Gérard Depardieu on his motorbike. Thus, the two stars block traffic and motorists are delighted to observe the duo in full discussion. Johnny did that often?
It was quite rare. But once, on the eve of leaving for Africa for a safari, Johnny went to Fnac des Ternes in Paris to buy a digital camera. It was December 23. I had to open a breach so that Johnny could pass in the middle of the amazed crowd, but he never managed to access the boxes. Another time, I don’t know what got into him, he asked me to go to dinner at MacDonald’s in Boulogne-Billancourt! We tried, before retreating in the car, because it was too tense. In France, Johnny couldn’t go anywhere without everyone throwing themselves at him. He tended to want to live like a normal man… but he wasn’t.
READ ALSOJohnny’s Three SecretsI remember a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in October 2012. In the ambient madness, Johnny had surprised everyone by stepping over the amps on the garden side to sing in the middle of the spectators. On stage too, was he unpredictable?
Normally, I was always warned when he was in contact with the public. He loved it. For example, I knew he came down to shake hands with the fans during “Something From Tennessee.” But in London, that was not planned. I remember it very well. I was in the stands with Laeticia. As soon as I saw him do this, I ran to join him and secure him, making sure he didn’t fall. It was the day when he scared me the most.
Some fans nicknamed you “the pit bull”. Do you understand this nickname?
[Silence amusé] Yes. It is true that I was not always very friendly. At the same time, I was the only one in charge of Johnny’s security on a daily basis. I had to maintain a distance between his public and me to be respected. At the beginning, I tried to organize meetings with the fans who spent their time in front of the artist’s house, but they did not respect my instructions. So I decided to block everyone. And if Johnny wanted to see someone, he specifically asked me. I went for the bad guy. Too bad ! It was my job. Johnny never instructed me to do so, but if he kept me in his service for so long, I guess that was fine with him.
How do you respond to people who say you don’t like your boss’s fans?
It is totally false. I was there to preserve the security and tranquility of the artist. Indeed, I had problems with those who spent their lives in front of the Hallyday family gate. On the other hand, loyal and respectful fans who followed Johnny’s tours were rewarded with another bodyguard who brought them into the Zenith before anyone else. He was the good guy, and I was the bad guy.
In the intimacy, how did you manage the anxieties of the rocker?
In the hospital, I lived through complicated times. At Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles in 2009, Johnny was heavily medicated. I was there as much to protect him from himself as to avoid the paparazzi. A few months earlier, I had learned that certain members of the personnel of the American hospital of Neuilly had been bribed to photograph the artist in his bed. In Los Angeles, I had to oppose my boss, because he wanted to leave his room, although he had neither the authorization nor the physical capacities. Getting in front of Johnny Hallyday, and telling him no, is already tricky. But then when you’re his employee… I did it, and he never blamed me for it.
During a very moving chapter, you recount having followed the Hallyday family during the adoption of Jade and Joy, the rocker’s last two children.
There is no more intimate than this kind of moments. It was very strong. For Joy, I even had the role of family photographer, because Daniel Angeli wasn’t there, and Johnny didn’t want pictures in the press. It was emotionally charged.
I only saw him once having difficulty recording a song, it was for “Marie”. A passage was a problem for him
You explain that you did everything to avoid becoming Johnny’s confidant. For what ?
Sometimes working sixteen hours out of twenty-four for him, I already had enough tasks! Besides, I didn’t want to spend an extra hour in his office listening to him talk or watching television by his side. Besides, I already knew enough from hearing his countless phone conversations in the car. These were important secrets, which I had to preserve.
Did Johnny sing or listen to music in the car?
Johnny was super professional. Certainly, he had an extraordinary voice, but that would not have been enough to accomplish this career. In the car, when we came back from the studio, he silently listened to the songs he had just recorded. Very concentrated. Luckily, he didn’t ask my opinion. I never allowed myself to pass judgment on anything.
In the car, he never sang. But I heard it in the studio, it was great. What a voice ! It was powerful. I only saw him once having difficulty recording a song, it was for “Marie. “. A passage was giving him trouble. Otherwise, it still ran smoothly, but that was no coincidence. In his office, I heard him revise. A lot of people think everything was easy for him, but he was working.
READ ALSOAlbum sales: Johnny Hallyday resistsYou are quite harsh with Laeticia, on several occasions, in your book. Did you like her less than her husband?
No. It’s not that. I’m just telling facts. I explain that, little by little, she took matters into her own hands, like many women in couples. Except that the Hallyday couple was not a normal couple. Laeticia has made her place in the family and in the entourage. I do not judge. I have no preconceptions about her and I don’t write anything mean about her. My trips alongside him for Unicef, in Mozambique and Burkina Faso, remain among my fondest memories.
In 2016, you stopped working with Johnny following a misunderstanding between the company that employed you and the singer’s production. Overnight, you lost contact with Johnny. Do you regret never having spoken to him again?
Yes. But it’s kind of my fault. I could have taken my phone and explained to him that it was not my decision, but that of my employer.
What is your best memory with Johnny?
The Dakar Rally. It was a childhood dream. And I did it to follow Johnny, when it was not planned. As, with him, everything was out of the ordinary, it was great.
And the worst ?
Hospital weeks in Los Angeles, 2009. When I entered the intensive care unit, my boss was more dead than alive. I believe he crossed over and came back.