France's favorite rocker, Johnny Hallyday, scrapped the leather and long hair for an important gig Friday: receiving the Legion of Honor.
"My dear Johnny. It's a great privilege for me to see you in a tie," said a smiling President Jacques Chirac as he greeted the 53-year-old singer, who sported a new, trim haircut as well.Hallyday, whose real name is Jean-Philippe Smet, is little known outside France, where he introduced rock 'n' roll in 1959 with French versions of tunes like "Tutti Frutti" and "Let's Twist Again."
Last November, some 6,000 French fans paid $2,100 each to follow him to a performance in Las Vegas.
Chirac praised Hallyday's "genius, sensibility, emotion and heart as big as a house. Someone who loves life, France, the world, the young as well as the less young."