“A Catastrophic State”: Jean-Claude Camus Recounts Johnny Hallyday's Last Moments on His Deathbed

At death's door, Johnny Hallyday was only a shadow of himself. His producer Jean-Claude Camus remembers him in Chez Jordan.

© Bestimage Johnny Hallyday, one year before his death

IN BRIEF

• In September 2016, Johnny Hallyday learned that he had stage 4 lung cancer, metastasized in several organs.
• Despite the illness, Johnny Hallyday decided to go on tour, but the illness progressed rapidly.
• The question remains: Did Johnny know he was going to die ? Discover the poignant testimonies of his close ones.

In September 2016, Johnny Hallyday learned terrible news. A stage 4 lung cancer metastasized to his liver, stomach and pancreas. The diagnosis did not really alarm the singer. The latter, then aged 73, had already triumphed twice from cancer, once in the colon, once in the prostate. His days are actually numbered.

The fight begins at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. After leaving the hospital, the artist flies to Paris with his family. Laeticia wants to extend her husband's life by a few more years. He would like to go on tour again. Nothing and no one can convince the Boss not to go back on the road. From Lille to Paris, passing through Dijon, the disease invariably takes over.

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Johnny Hallyday: his last meeting with his producer Jean-Claude Camus

In December 2017, Jean-Claude Camus received a call from Laeticia Hallyday. Jade and Joy's mother suggested that he visit her husband in their house in Marnes-la-Coquette where the singer was fighting against the disease. “I come into the room as if everything is fine and I tell him: 'You've lost a little weight. You should perk yourself up because you still have a voice to finish on the next album.'“, the producer recalls today in Chez Jordan.

And he continues: “He looks at me – I had a white sweater: 'You have a stain.' These were his last words.” Jean-Claude Camus knew then that he would never see his friend again, who died 48 hours later. “He had lost too much weight. He was in a catastrophic state”, describes the man who is constantly being nagged by a question seven years later: Did Johnny Hallyday know he was going to die ?

Johnny Hallyday: did he know he didn't have much longer to live ?

If Jean-Claude Camus can't answer this question, Laura Smet has she has a very strong opinion. “I think he didn't know, says the daughter of Johnny Hallyday and Nathalie Baye in a recent interview granted to Paris Match. And he was very afraid of death, that's why he hated the night so much, like I hate seeing the day fall.”

In the story of her father's last days, the actress who became a mother herself remembers having to hide a secret from her father. “At the Bizet clinic, David, his wife and I were told that it was over,” she recalls. We were also told […] that he was going to be in palliative care at home.” The artist did not know this, “we shouldn't have told him.”