This is a posthumous tribute quite unexpected and comes from the top. On Wednesday, Paul McCartney has revealed to our colleagues in the Paris he was visiting the grave of Johnny Hallyday, located in the cemetery of Lorient, Saint-Barthélémy. Not one of his intimate friends, he knew and appreciated, in fact, the rocker French, who died nearly a year.
«We spoke a few times,» says the british singer, passage to France for his performance in the Defence Arena, in Nanterre. «Especially a few years ago when he had been very sick for the first time [in 2009]. I had called and I believe it was appreciated,» develops the star of 76 years.
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But for Paul McCartney, the unforgettable interpreter of I love You was mostly a friend of a friend: «Two of my musicians have played often with him and they had real links with Johnny», he explains. It is primarily to them that the artist has made the trip up to the Caribbean island: «They were very sad when he died, he said. Then we went to the cemetery where he is buried in Saint-Barth. His tomb was very beautiful, with a guitar in flowers and full of messages from fans. It was very touching.» The pop star says: «Johnny was a nice guy.»
Sylvie Vartan, a long-time friend of Paul McCartney
But the musicians of the ex-Beatle is not the only link of the british singer with the rocker French: it is also known, of long standing, his ex-wife and the mother of David Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan. In fact, the «four boys in the wind» had given in 1964, a series of concerts at the Olympia, for several weeks.
They shared the bill with the singer of american folk Trini Lopez and Sylvie Vartan, at the time icon yé-yé… and companion of Johnny Hallyday. «We were staying at the hotel Georges V, one hitching a ride on the Champs-Élysées. And Sylvie Vartan was super nice. We stayed friends after,» he concludes. The French singer, who just released a tribute album to Johnny Hallyday, has surely appreciated this gesture of Paul McCartney.