Hervé Forneri is none other than Dick Rivers. With a Johnny Cash hairstyle and cowboy boots, the French Texan was back in Nice on Tuesday, May 16, to present his new album (*) to the delight of his loyal Nice audience.
Nice-Première had the privilege of meeting Dick Rivers, often presented as the third French rocker after Johnny Hallyday and Eddy Mitchell. A smile, a handshake, a compliment about my leather belt, and the interview with the “Bad Player” begins…
Nice-Première: So, how is our rocker from Nice doing?
Dick Rivers: The rocker from Nice (laughs) The singer from Nice is doing very well, very, very well.
N-P: For your latest album, you surrounded yourself with the new generation of French singers. A yéyé-era rocker and young composers whose parents danced to your songs. How does that work?
D.R.: Wonderfully well. I chose them, not because they sang, but because they wrote well. These are people I like, including Mickael Furnon from Mickey 3D, Mathieu Chedid (M), Benjamin Biolay, Mathieu Bogaert, or Miro. These are guys who had beautiful songs for me to sing. What interested me was how “they” saw me. I’m just a performer; I don’t write. What was interesting was to see how this new generation would perceive the vocal instrument that I am, and it went fantastically well. And if I wanted, I could still be in the studio now! (smile)
N-P: You said in an interview that people talk more about your character than your music. How do you explain that?
D.R.: Absolutely. I hope that thanks to this album, people will finally talk more about my music than about my character.
This character only exists because he does things. Hervé Forneri, the man from Nice, is about TV and radio shows, and the other character, the singer, is all about the music first and foremost. I’ve been in this wonderful profession for 45 years, and I think that if the music hadn’t been, so to speak, “up to scratch,” I wouldn’t be here anymore. But it’s true that my physical character often takes precedence over what I do, but well, if I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t be here anymore.
N-P: Are you proud of that?
D.R.: Yes. Certainly, there are record companies that pay millions of francs, well, hundreds of thousands of euros, to create characters. There are plenty of examples. Star Academy is a thing where they create characters, or at least they try to. I don’t have that problem. Also, I don’t have a problem with young people: they like me a lot. The problem is that they know “me” more than my music. It comes from people who run certain media, but it’s a long debate.
N-P: Recently on the cinema screens, Jean-Philippe Smet was featured in his own role. If a director offers to make a film about Hervé Forneri’s life, would you agree to play your role?
D.R.: No, because it would certainly be less funny. I’ve never thought about it. Moreover, they won’t propose that. But, yes, finally, why not? It’s funny. But I’d prefer to play other characters than play my own life. Johnny Hallyday, it’s not the same. The idea is very good. It’s an old idea that came from a Spielberg thing that made a movie about Elvis with a look-alike. It played on the idea: “what would France be without Johnny Hallyday?” But Hallyday, he’s not just a singer, he’s a national holiday. I don’t know how I could explain that’s…
N-P: A French heritage?
D.R.: Yes, I’m sure that when he passes away, there will be a national day of mourning so it’s nothing like that.
N-P: Besides your singing career, you also take on other roles, such as that of a TV presenter on Paris Première where you host Playmate. Why?
D.R.: I love it because it allows us to joke around a bit like in the days of Antoine Decaunes and José Garcia. Since I’m a character, I like using this persona. In fact, I have a sort of split personality that means there’s Dick Rivers, the singer on one side, and Hervé Forneri, on the other, who likes to make use of Dick Rivers. I love letting people benefit from everything I’ve learned, from the humor I have. I take a lot of pleasure in doing it. Movies, I don’t care about. What interests me are the sketches we do. It’s funny! (smile)
(continued in English)
