Paris (AFP)

At 71, the actor Daniel Auteuil released a successful first album, the opportunity to make him talk about music for AFP: his "love" for Adamo or Eddy De Pretto, and how he "got caught up in the game" .

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"De Pretto, I love this guy"

First musical memory?

In his bassinet, backstage, Auteuil hears his parents, lyric singers.

"At four years old, I remember being the son of + Madame Butterfly +", an opera character played by his mother, he says.

At home, in Avignon, we listen to Luis Mariano on the radio, "my mother was crazy about him", Bourvil (also a singer), Annie Cordy, the Compagnons de la chanson, or even "the young Charles Aznavour, whose people + say with his hoarse voice, he won't go far + (laughs) ".

The first 33 rpm purchased are those of Johnny, Claude François and Nougaro.

"A guy reminds me a lot of Nougaro, he's (Eddy) De Pretto, who shakes things up, I love this guy".

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"Adamo, I love him out of frustration"

"I'm crazy about Adamo, I love him out of frustration (laughs): he went to Avignon when I was young, I had gone out the two evenings before, and that night my grandparents who were guarding me kept me from going out, but I heard it through the open window ".

"He came to see me at the Francofolies (where Auteuil sang in mid-July), we know each other a little, I told him that I loved him a long time ago, everything is fine (laughs)".

Daniel Auteuil on stage at the Francofolies de La Rochelle, July 13, 2021 Iroz Gaizka AFP / Archives

The first slap as a spectator in concert "it's Reggiani, opening act for Barbara".

He admits it, it's due to the fact that "he was also an actor and that I wanted to be an actor at that time".

He also resumes Reggiani today on stage.

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"Total unconsciousness" to get started

The genesis of "If you had known me", a disc which will be released this Friday, is based on two events.

First of all, the discovery of a little note his mother left him in a collection of poems by Paul-Jean Toulet.

He set it to music, like other famous authors alongside texts of his own.

And then he met Gaëtan Roussel, leader of Louise Attaque, to whom he asked for arrangements "in tune with the times".

"When I sing Voltaire, one has the impression that it was written the day before (laughs)".

"I am totally unconscious, if I had had a minimum of musical knowledge, I would have known that putting Toulet's poems to music is impossible, it is not square, not the right number of feet (laughs), but there was an overwhelming urge.

. "Don't fuck with arpeggios!"

Before meeting Roussel, Auteuil therefore began to compose alone in boxes at the theater, in caravans on film sets, on the guitar. Instrument that entered his life "only four years ago". "I bought a guitar for my son who is left-handed like me, then he quit. I took lessons with a great teacher." "And, like this surgeon who told me + don't bother at your age + when I wanted to have my knee operated, this music teacher told me + don't mess with the arpeggios! Have fun composing! + ". "I said to myself, + but I only know three chords ... +, and then I dissect other people's songs and I say to myself + ah that's all, sometimes there are only two chords +. that".

Daniel Auteuil at the Francofolies de La Rochelle, July 13, 2021 GAIZKA IROZ AFP / Archives

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"I'm starting to trust myself".

"I got caught up in the game, I started to trust myself (as a singer-songwriter). After a while, it's the same as when you do the actor: at the beginning we go to see the rushes during the shooting. , then we don't care, we feel when it's fluid ".

Obviously, with humor, he sometimes wonders if the rooms "are not filled with people subsidized to please the old actor that I am (laughs)".

The reminders of the public, delighted at the Francos, can reassure him.

© 2021 AFP