"I had never met him, I listened to his albums throughout my childhood, I'm surprised to see him here, I didn't know he was into this style of music," AFP told AFP. teenager.
The young fan is wearing a t-shirt from Mirizon, a metal band from Nantes, a town near Clisson (Loire-Atlantique) where Hellfest was held until Sunday.
Sébastien, 47 years old and lumberjack beard, father of Eliaz, launches Aldebert: "We are waiting for an album for adults!".
"And why not a Helldebert?"
retorts the singer who became a star with his saga of albums entitled "Enfantillages".
Aldebert and metal, it's a long story.
"I had a comic book culture, my father was a designer and metal, I entered it through drawing", he rewinds for AFP.
Then in CM1, he sees in a commercial gallery the cover of "Killers" by Iron Maiden, with a zombie "all in theatricality".
He asks for the record as a birthday present.
This will be followed by the discovery of an "AC/DC K7 that a friend's big brother had forgotten in the family's R9".
And then there was a Metallica concert seen on TV and Steve Vai, American guitarist, "responsible for my school failure".
- "Parallel between metal and childhood" -
"I got fired in second in high school, I was not there".
He finds himself in the laundry room of a hospital.
With his first salary, he buys a guitar amp and therefore dives into metal.
“I had long hair, hair what”, laughs the one who is bald today.
"It was great but at the same time very dark, because it was an anguish for my parents".
"But it was a good kick in the ass, I said to myself + you live in Besançon, you will never be Kirk Hammett (Metallica guitarist) +".
Singer Aldebert at the Hellfest festival, June 26, 2022 in Clisson, western France Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS AFP
At the turn of 25, he set foot again in French song, with the success story that we know today in children's albums (resumption in November of his tour of Zénith-type rooms, until April 2023).
"Metal is always present in my repertoire in terms of energy, authenticity and sincerity, that's how I draw the parallel between metal and childhood".
At the age of 40 (he is now 48) he discovered Hellfest and became addicted to this event.
In 2017, he remarried even in this context.
"Far from the clichés"
His wife, in a wedding dress, surfs the crowd who carry her at arm's length in front of a stage where Slash, guitarist of Guns N'Roses, performs solo.
"She went on the giant screen and I said to the guy next to me + hey, it's my wife! +, I was super proud".
He breathes his Proust madeleine at Hellfest.
"With my friends, at the Guns N' Roses concert (Saturday night at Hellfest) it was the contest of who cries the fastest".
Singer Aldebert at the Hellfest festival, June 26, 2022 in Clisson, western France Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS AFP
"When I see people like Slash or James Hetfield on stage (Metallica frontman, scheduled for Sunday night at Hellfest), it's like Spiderman to me, they're not normal people, they can't have back pain" , he smiles.
The children are never far away.
He is currently working on a documentary pilot project, "The Children of Hellfest".
"When they recognize me at Hellfest, I interview them, we chat, the kids are so cute".
"They come with their parents or their grandparents, it's this intergenerational side that I want to show in metal, far from the clichés of violence that still stick to this music".
© 2022 AFP