Paul Personne whose real name is Rene-Paul Roux, was born in Argenteuil, in the Paris region on December 27, 1949. He spent part of his childhood not far from there in the town of Houilles. His father was a workman and sometimes played the harmonica. As for the young Rene, he discovered music on the radio. His preferences went from Aznavour to Piaf until the day he heard Eddy Mitchell and Johnny Hallyday.

His parents bought an accordion from a neighbourhood baker. But this instrument really didn't appeal to the young boy. In fact, his big sister would take it. He was more tempted by the drums. He put together a drum set and this was how he took his first steps as an amateur musician. He also played a bit of guitar inspired no doubt by Jimi Hendrix. It was a time of first bands started with his high school friends.

After earning a C.A.P. in general mechanics (a technical type of high school diploma), at seventeen, he and his first group L'Origine signed their first 45 record with Pathé-Marconi. After several radio appearances and a concert project the adventure ended pretty quickly. If he started working in a food-processing company, he didn't forget music in the least. In fact some time later, an encounter with a theatrical troop, the Liquid Theatre, would bring him to form La Folle Entreprise, a fifteen-person group of musicians. Next, the group toured the "Maisons des Jeunes et de la Culture" (youth cultural centers) which enabled them to exist without unfortunately making very much money. A 45 in 1973 called "Pas des Anges" and recorded with Vamp records in England is the only tangible trace of their existence.

Despite an attempt to return to a "normal" life with his settling in Toulouse in the South West of France (with his wife Colette and their daughter Jessica born in '74) he couldn't help strumming his guitar on his own. The group experience started up again with a new band called Bracos Band. Return then to the scene, club tours and regional festivals. The recording of a 45 in 1977 completed this experience. In these years marked by the arrival of the Punk Rock movement, it was difficult to seduce the record companies with blues-rock.

So after the break up of Bracos Band came the birth of a new group called Backstage. Paul recruited a bass player and a drummer. The trio did some concerts and ended up signing a contract with Vogue. They recorded an eponymous album in '79. Sung only in English. After a 45-date tour, he returned to the studio to make a second album, which came out the following year, including in England where it was written up in Melody Maker magazine. Unfortunately the relationship with the record company deteriorated and signalled the end of Backstage's existence.

If English seemed to by the most appropriate language to accompany Paul Personne's music up to now, the ruination of the groups he had played with allowed him to think this over. At the beginning of the Eighties, he started to write in French. Several titles were concocted with a demo in mind. In October '82 Paul Personne's first album was released on CBS records. Several TV and radio appearances and then nothing. The record company refused to record a second album.

So he returned to his farm near Toulouse to spend a few months doing fairly little. Then the breaking point. At the request of the singer Nicoletta, he was invited to a new TV programme. Several artistic directors were present. But from then on Paul Personne intended to do the type of music he wanted and to no longer be subjected to the interferences of the record companies in his artistic work. It was with Babette Jones from Phonogram that he finally negotiated and released an album in '83 entitled "Exclusif" with the major titles like "Comme un étranger" and "Ça va rouler", a convincing example of blues made in France that marked the style of the artist.

From then on, things accelerated a bit, allowing the artist to release "Barjoland" in 1984. The difficulties seemed to be decreasing. However, his daughter Jessica would be involved in a fatal accident in August '84, leaving him greatly distraught.

In 1985 a new album "24/24" was released with amongst many the title "Faut qu'j'me laisse aller". Followed by three nights at the Olympia Theatre in Paris on March 17th and 18th 1986 and then a big tour. But record distribution was poorly handled and if from this point on he was a known artist, Paul Personne's public success still remained limited.

His enthusiasm fell. His activities slowed down. He spent his time in his new house in Perche (a region closer to Paris than Toulouse) with his companion Gloria and his son Jeremy born in 1976.

It was in '87 that his artistic activities would really start up again. He was invited to participate in the Quebec Festival. An extremely warm welcome by the public gave him back the taste for the stage and at the same time music. This resulted in an album in February '89 "La chance" signed on a small label called Bird. The first 45 which came out of this successful opus which was peppered with bluesy ballads (two of which were signed by Boris Berman, lyrics by Bashung) entitled "Trop tard". In January '90, he spent three evenings at the Bataclan club in Paris assembling his faithful fans who were becoming more and more numerous around the tables like in a cabaret. In September, he participated at the Blues evening of the Fete de l'Humanité (an annual gathering organised by the French Communist party).

Convinced that the stage was more important than a studio recording, which he could do and which he liked to do, Paul Personne played at the Olympia theatre in a unique concert on March 11th, 1991 to celebrate the release of a live recording "La Route de la chance". As for a record company, bad luck fell upon him because his just went out of business. That same year, he was awarded the Bus d'acier, the "Grand Prix of French Rock".

After this rather positive year, numerous propositions flowed. He chose to sign with Polydor and in '92 released, a new album put together on his own, in a studio in his home called "Comme à la maison". Collaborating on this opus were artists who really corresponded to the singer's universe: the musician Jacno, the songwriter Boris Bergman, and the actor Gerard Lanvin.

The year 1993 was well-filled: in fact, he started by selling out two nights at the Olympia in January, followed by a two-month tour, coming back to La Cigale club in Paris for two concerts in February, taking part in the recording of Eddy Mitchell's album "Rio Grande", being on the list of prestigious guests of Johnny Hallyday for his big show at Parc des Princes stadium in Paris and to play at La Rochelle's summer music festival Les Francofolies for a special "Fête a Paul Personne".

The artist affirmed his personal identity a little bit more when he released the album "Rêve sideral d'un naïf ideal" the following year. For the first time, he worked with a producer, Englishman Ian Taylor who had previously overseen the work of Gary Moore, Dylan, or in France Eddy Mitchell ("Rio Grande"). His accomplice Boris Bergman also took part. The musicians from the 1993 tour were also present. Between the well-put together pieces like "Loco loco" or the ballads like "Celia", Paul Personne gave us a demonstration of his unparalleled talents as a guitarist (largely inspired by Jimi Hendrix) but also a true singer recreating little stories with his songs.

After his appearance at the Olympia and a big tour, Paul Personne came back in '96 with a new album "Instantanés". Produced by Ian Taylor, he gathered the talents of his old friends like Boris Bergman, Jean-Louis Aubert, actor Richard Borhinger as well as Christian Dupont who had already written some lyrics on the previous album. Several bluesy instrumentals also punctuated this record like many of the respirations between songs. "Instantanés" like the two preceding albums became Gold records.

If he isn't very talkative in real life, Paul Personne is at home on stage. He then set out on tour just after the release of the record. Recorded at the Olympia from the first to the third of April 1997, the live "Route 97" came out a bit later.

Personne rocketed back into the music news in the spring of 2000 with a new album entitled "Patchwork Electrique". Famed as a committed workaholic, the singer actually wrote 50 new songs for this album, but he ended up narrowing his choice down to 14, including two tracks he co-wrote with legendary French alternative Hubert-Felix Thiéfaine. The first single release from the album, "La Beauté du blues", was a Personne/Thiéfaine collaboration in fact. Personne's faithful collaborators Boris Bergman and Luc Béranger also contributed lyrics and, for the first time in his career, Personne also invited a number of Anglo-Saxon musicians to guest on his new album. (Many of these were high-profil enames who had played with the likes of Iggy Pop and Eagle-Eye Cherry). Musically speaking, Personne's new album found the bluesman moving back towards a classic rock style, but there were a few modern surprises such as DJ Sya Styles's innovative scratch session on the single "La Beauté du blues".

In the autumn of 2000, much to his fans' delight, Paul Personne embarked upon another major tour of France. His new show, which was as heavily blues-influenced as ever, proved a big hit up and down the country and audience satisfaction reached a climax when the guitar star performed in Paris at Le Zénith (on November 9^th). Manu Lanvin, the son of the famous French actor Gérard Lanvin, supported Personne at Le Zénith, performing songs from his debut album (released at the end of summer 2000).

Used to taking his time, Paul Personne waited until June 2003 to release his new album, "Demain il f'ra beau" (Tomorrow the weather’ll be fine). The acoustic album was penned by Personne’s usual collaborators: two ballads, "Le diable en hiver" and "la Foire à la Brocante", by Boris Bergman and others by his long-time friend Christian Dupont. Yet this time around, Personne also collaborated with new artists such as Nerac and Guirec. Nevertheless, the final result was very faithful to the author’s dedication to rock-blues-folk.

"Coup d'blues", the rock sequel to "Demain il f'ra beau" was released a few months later and on it fans found Personne whipping up the tempo and giving free rein to raunchy guitar riffs. Following his ‘double’ acoustic/electric release, the bluesman hit the road again for an intensive series of concerts, playing dates up and down the country. His performance at Les Vieilles Charrues festival, in Carhaix, on 24 July was immortalised on a live DVD (released on 22 November 2004).

Personne and his musicians kept up their gruelling schedule throughout most of 2005, continuing their tour of the nation’s smaller venues. During the final leg of the tour, in January 2006, Personne set the cameras rolling, filming the performances for his personal record. However, the sound and images from the show were eventually edited and brought out on a double live CD/DVD entitled "Il était une fois sur la route" (Once upon a Time on the Road.) The DVD, which featured three hours of Personne playing to an ecstatic crowd, was released together with the double album on 27 November 2006 to mark the 25th anniversary of the bluesman’s career.

On 24 and 25 March 2007, Paul Personne took to the stage at the famous Parisian venue La Cigale for two exceptional performances. The first concert featured electric versions of his songs with Personne playing a high proportion of tracks he rarely ever performed live. Several surprise guest stars also joined him on stage that night. The second concert revolved around acoustic versions of his songs with Personne playing traditional blues pieces and a number of unreleased songs. This concert also included its fair share of guest stars.

Later that same spring, Johnny Hallyday got in touch with Personne and asked him to compose the music for two blues songs for his forthcoming album, "Le cœur d'un homme." Personne agreed and started work on the songs with Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine, another famous figure from the French blues scene, penning the lyrics. Hallyday, however, was not satisfied with the end result and did not include the songs on his album. Loath to throw away their material, Personne and Thiéfaine decided to get together and record their own album. "Amicalement blues", featuring Personne on guitar, Thiéfaine as songwriter, and the pair of them on vocals, was released on 12 November 2007.

December 2007