Two years after his death, Johnny Hallyday continues to animate his fans. Witness the sales of his latest posthumous album. A week after its release in late October, it has sold 150,000 copies. It is especially to escape this excitement that the rocker had settled across the Atlantic. In Los Angeles, Johnny Hallyday lived like any other American. In "Paris Match Stories", the podcast of the editorial staff of "Paris Match" produced and directed by Europe 1 Studio, journalist Benjamin Locoge recalls being surprised by the "simple" life of this rock legend.

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He was the youth idol, a rock monument. In France, his simple appearance was enough to electrify the crowds and each album release was (and still is) an event. But in Los Angeles, where he lived for more than twenty years with his wife Laeticia and his two daughters Jade and Joy, Johnny Hallyday led a quiet life.

"He lived a normal life," insists even Benjamin Locoge, journalist at Paris Match, interviewed in Paris Match Stories, the podcast of the Paris Match editorial produced and directed by Europe 1 Studio. In this second episode of the audio series "The Day Johnny Hallyday invited me to his home", the reporter returns on this day spent in the intimacy of the singer in June 2015.

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"In Los Angeles, it was possible to change plans at the last minute"

"He loved being able to live his life like everyone else," the reporter recalls. In the city of angels, the rocker was shopping, frequented restaurants in Malibu or Santa Monica, in almost perfect anonymity. "With Laeticia, they could prepare a meal and change their minds to go out for dinner."

In the restaurant, the waiters do not recognize him, nobody looked at him, the rocker came out smoking without anyone asking him anything. "In Paris, it would have been absolutely impossible or it would have been necessary to go to starred restaurants, book a valet service so that we can not see them and they dine in the kitchens to be quiet. it was possible to change plans at the last minute, "says Benjamin Locoge.

(Johnny Hallyday's home in Los Angeles.) Credit: AFP

"He was so quiet," recalls the journalist who was invited to the singer's home. At home, family life resembled that of anyone. "It was a totally normal family, far from the image of the star, he was not the rocker at all, as we can see in leather on stage," he continues. "I remember he asked Jade to show me the movie theater and he was proud to have this success," says Benjamin Locoge. He added: "He lived his American dream fully, and that made him happy."

"Paris Match Stories" is a Paris Match podcast
Presentation: Marion Mertens
Production: Europe 1 Studio with Guillaume Vasseau at the realization

With the help of the European Heritage Documentation Service 1 for sound archives

Credits credits: Hélène Zelany