“
During the recording, I thought about him a lot.
It was almost a one-on-one with Johhny
”.
Yarol Poupaud, guitarist of the "Taulier" for six years, releases an album of covers of the favorite rocker of the French, who died in 2017.
The good idea is not to sweep the entire repertoire of the sacred monster, but to target the 1960-70 period to "
put the cursor back on rock
", as the guitarist-singer told AFP.
No suave titles like
I promise you
or
Laura
, but an album –
Son of no one
scheduled for Friday – which begins with an electric shock,
Voyage au pays des vivants
.
"
In Johnny's career, we know the great ballads, the people side, but I wanted to come back to the reasons why I was happy to work with him and to rediscover these titles
", develops the musician known in the years 1990 with the FFF group.
How did he get on the Johnny ship?
In 2011, when promoting Johnny's album
Never Alone,
made with Matthieu Chedid, the latter had a busy schedule and the name of Poupaud, who collaborated with Niagara, was blown.
"A little loose"
“
We are doing a concert in the small RTL studio.
45 minutes in front of 200 people and, for me, it was over.
I was super happy to have done that.
I go home with stars in my eyes
.
But, at two o'clock in the morning, the phone rings: “
Yeah, it's Johnny.
How would you like to tour with us?
".
A phone call from the production later confirms to him that he "did
n't have a weird dream
".
Poupaud then discovers that "
this guy's life was a permanent roller-coaster
.
After three months of touring, he was slammed, fed up, drove home to Los Angeles but, ten days later, called, “What do we do?
A new album?
”
”.
Poupaud appeals to Johnny for his “
group culture
”.
"
He also liked Nono (
Norbert Krief, guitarist of Trust then Johnny)
for this group side, which means that the light is not only on the singer
".
“
Sometimes I jumped around and went to see him the next day saying: 'Uh, I got a little loose yesterday...' And Johnny would say to me: 'No, on the contrary, go all out, the public it breaks it”.
Others would not have accepted that I put myself in front of them during the solo.
»
Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page...
Johnny has the culture of guitarists.
Ô Carole qu'il
chante (and covered by Poupaud) was originally a title by Chuck Berry and
Hey Joe
was popularized by Jimi Hendrix.
The general public ignores it but, the first time that the trio The Jimi Hendrix Experience goes on stage, on October 13, 1966, it is in... Évreux!
In the first part of Johnny, who spotted this gifted man who plays with his teeth in a club in London, a city where the French rocker works with the best of the moment.
Because, among the additional musicians of the "
Taulier
" in the studio, we find Jimmy Page, iconic guitarist of Led Zeppelin on
À tout casser
, a little-known title taken over by Poupaud.
The latter has also crossed paths with his hero from
"Led Zep"
.
"
One day in New York, with Johnny, I'm doing a solo and, there, I see Jimmy Page in the audience: suddenly, I'm less sure of my solo...
(laughs)".
At the end of the concert, a security guard prevents him from entering Johnny's dressing room where Page is, "
because there are too many people
".
But at the airport the next day, he bumps into Page at the newsstand.
“
We chatted, even better than if we had done it in the dressing room.
We were supposed to meet
, ”smiles Poupaud.
