Jacques Dutronc: this amazing job he could have done before becoming a singer

Et moi, et moi, et moi, Il est 5 heures, Les cactus… We owe the singer Jacques Dutronc many hits that are still anchored today in the French song industry. Since the 1960s, the artist has been one of France’s essential singers. A passion he passed on to his son, singer Thomas Dutronc, born of his relationship with Françoise Hardy.

At 79, Jacques Dutronc does not seem to want to retire, far from it. With his son, he is currently starting a tour that will end in Paris on December 21 at the Accor Arena. However, the artist could have missed his vocation. This is what biographer Frédéric Quinonero revealed in his book entitled Jacques Dutronc, the insolent, published by L’Archipel in 2021.

In the latter, we learn that the young Jacques Dutronc “devotes himself without measure to his passion for animals. All kinds of animals. The white mice, bred by the hundreds, which he sprinkles with eau de Cologne to hide the smell. The turtles, on whose shells he paints a number in order to designate the fastest”, he wrote and continues: “The tadpoles, whose metamorphosis to the frog state he carefully monitors . A dog. A cat. A hamster”. A passion for animals that could have pushed him to become… a veterinarian.

Unfortunately for him, this job requires long years of study, which does not seem to be to the young man’s taste. “For a time, he aspired to become a veterinarian, but unlike his older brother who pursued a brilliant education (…) studies do not interest him”, writes the writer. And as “I was not interested in studies either, we parted amicably”, said Jacques Dutronc at the time. It is finally towards the song that he will turn. A passion that will serve him well, he who is still today one of the most talented artists of his generation.