Pop star's cocaine tale changes French view of the world

Normally Le Monde gives little space to sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. But the
austere French daily has outraged some readers by publishing a lengthy
interview with the perpetual rock star Johnny Hallyday in which he casually
admits to taking cocaine. John Lichfield reports.

The controversy falls into three parts.

There are the diehard Le Monde readers who believe the newspaper should
never mention a "chanteur yeye" like Johnny Hallyday at all.

There are more broad-minded readers who were, none the less, astonished to
find the newspaper permitting him to make a defence of cocaine and its
artistic contribution to rock music.

Thirdly, there are those, like the magazine Marianne, who wonder aloud why
Johnny Hallyday, 54, friend of President Jacques Chirac and member of the
Legion of Honour, has not been prosecuted under France's famously Draconian
drugs laws.

"For the same offences, for the same use of drugs, dealers, young people,
poor people, citizens from the bottom rungs of society are being deprived
of their liberty," the magazine said.

Marianne also demanded to know why, for two weeks, the rock star's comments
produced no reaction from the French media. (It was Le Monde, to its
credit, which broke the silence by admitting that it had been bombarded by
complaints from its readers).

For the rest, said Marianne, French journalists ignored Hallyday's
confession "for one simple reason . coke is also their secret." Since the
Eighties, according to the magazine, use of cocaine has been widespread
among French journalists, television personalities, lawyers, actors and
writers.

"Cocaine is fun, sociable and useful: it gets rid of women's inhibitions
and convinces men that they have sexual endurance."

Johnny Hallyday (like Le Monde) is a French institution. He claims to have
introduced France to rock music in 1959 and has remained popular, and
active, ever since, without ever becoming successful abroad.

Unlike Hallyday, Le Monde is an institution which has found it necessary to
change its tune, a little, over time. Although still uncompromisingly
excellent in its coverage of politics and world events, the newspaper has
broadened its range in recent years and now includes such novelties as a
sports page. Even so, the two-page spread on Johnny Hallyday, launching his
new record and a series of live concerts in France, was a startling
departure.

The rock star spoke, rather movingly, of his early life and his unreliable
Belgian father before describing his experiences with drugs.

He made it clear that he had come to rely on cocaine as a tool of his trade
"to work, to start up the machine, to stand the pace . I'm not proud of it,
but you have to remember that our songs come from somewhere. They don't
fall off the Christmas tree".

The passage appeared in the interview without any comment or criticism by
the newspaper. There has been a lively debate in France recently about the
decriminalisation of drugs, but this has mostly been concerned with soft
drugs, such as cannabis.

It is widely recognised that the problems with violence and unemployment in
the "quartiers difficiles", or sink suburbs, of many French cities have
been worsened by the increasing presence of hard drugs, mostly heroin but
also cocaine.

"Imagine the reaction of the police and the justice system," wrote one
angry Le Monde reader, "if the user of drugs was called Mohammed and lived
in the Neuhof [a trouble district] in Strasbourg."

The newspaper's ombudsman, Thomas Ferenczi, rejected the criticism. He said
the article accurately reflected the realities of the rock business: it did
not reflect the newspaper's opinion on drugs.

Another reader, however, punning on the newspaper's title, wrote: "Adieu,
Monde, cruel, j'abandonne" which translates roughly as: "Goodbye cruel
World, I'm cancelling my subscription".

Johnny Hallyday made his confession earlier this month in a sprawling
two-page interview, incorporating something else rare in Le Monde - a
photograph.

The singer, 39 years in the business, spoke of his sense of being a rock
dinosaur. "There's just me and Mick Jagger left," he said.

Many of his fellow rock originals had become "petits-bourgeois", who had
sold out to "sugariness". Others, like "my friend" Jimi Hendrix and "my
friend" Brian Jones, were dead. Both died from drugs overdoses.

"Myself, I'm like one of those mortally ill people who keep on fighting
just so as not to die."

Johnny (ne Jean-Philippe Smet) then launched into a long description, and
defence, of the place of drugs in rock music. "Cocaine, yes, for a long
time I used to take it when I fell out of bed in the morning. That's
finished now. I take it in order to work, to start up the machine, to stand
the pace. I'm not the only one, either. Powder and hash are everywhere
amongst musicians...I'm not proud of it. But that's the way it is.

"You have to remember that our songs come from somewhere. They don't fall
off the Christmas tree."