JOHNNY HALLYDAY, the French rock star who has sold more than 100 million records during a 40-year career, stunned his fans yesterday by claiming to have been left destitute by his record company, Universal Music.

Hallyday, the most successful French post-war pop star, said that he had no money to bequeath to his two children when he died and had only just managed to pay off his multi-million euro debts.

“I invented my name,” said the 60-year-old rocker who was born Jean-Philippe Smet, “and my sweat gave life to that name. How many concert tours have I given in 40 years, how many galas and television shows? Is it all in vain? Was it all so that I could become Universal’s golden slave, a puppet for the decision-makers and the managers?” In the interview with L’Express magazine, Hallyday portrayed himself as a naive artiste who had been “skinned” by lawyers, consultants and businessmen and women.

However, critics say that with earnings of €5.1 million (£3.57 million) last year, he is far from poor even if it is true that a large part of his fortune has disappeared. They also say that he only has himself to blame if he is less rich than he would like to be.

The rocker is famous for the way he has frittered away his money on himself, his four wives, his countless girlfriends, his relatives and his friends. Six years ago, for example, he bought a €43 million yacht and took it on a five-month journey from Miami to New York via the Virgin Islands, Guadeloupe, Cuba and the Bahamas.

Last year, he spent €5 million buying the Amnesiá discotheque in Paris. In December 2002 he bought two apartments on the Caribbean island of Saint-Martin for €1.1 million, three times as much as their estimated worth.

For years, he paid his cousin, Desta, €3,000 a month. According to Le Monde he also paid an adviser about €1.2 million over 12 years, of which €210,000 were allegedly to cover taxi fares.

The interview with L’Express was published at a time when Hallyday is involved in court proceedings against Universal Music after breaking his contract with the firm that has been producing his records since 1961. Hallyday is said to account for 4 per cent of Universal Music’s balance sheet.

The singer, a national icon, said that he had been caught in an “infernal spiral” when the company lent him money to settle unpaid tax bills. Over the years, he said he had borrowed about £10 million from the firm, which he claimed took 90 per cent of his royalties to pay off the debts.

“The record company skinned me of part of my resources and my goods,” he said, claiming that the title deeds to his two houses, on the French Riviera and in Paris, had ended up with Universal Music. Asked why he had failed to pay taxes in the first place, he said: “I know how to sing and I know how to act but I have never been able to, never known how to, some people might say, never wanted to worry about that sort of problem. Counting bores me terribly.

“And now I realise that as things stand with Universal Music, if something happenned to me, I would have nothing to leave my children. This is an intolerable idea. I’ve worked all my life.”

He said that if he lost his case against Universal Music, “I will be a former singer . . . that said, Hallyday will perhaps be dead, but Jean-Philippe Smet will stay alive.”

In his only public comment on the conflict with Hallyday, Pascal Nègre, chairman of Universal Music France, said: “All that I hope for is a happy ending that will satisfy Johnny and Universal.”

FOR THE RECORD

• Johnny Hallyday was born Jean-Philippe Smet in Paris in 1943. His pseudonym was borrowed from a friend of his cousin, called Lee Hallyday
• Hallyday made his name during the 1960s by singing rock’n’roll in French
• During his 40-year career he has sold 100 million records, embarked on 400 tours, recorded 18 platinum albums and performed in front of 15 million people
• Hallyday has been married four times. His second marriage, to the model Babeth Etienne in 1981, lasted 2 months, 2 days

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