I had moved fron Dudley, MA to Montpellier France in Ocyober of 1969. My Father, Gilbert, was a French citizen, born in Blida Algeria, who was selected by the French Gov'tto attend college in the US in 1944, during WWII. My Father lived in the States for 24 years, with a Green Card. In 1969, he decided to move back to France to live with his parents. He took me and my 3 siblings with him and this was the start of a wonderful new life. I was 14 yrs old at the time and music was very important to me. As soon as I arrived, I became a BIG fan of French popular culture and music. I was a drummer for many years and got to play drums with various bands there. Joe Dassin was a verypopular singer at the time and I loved his music. I especially loved his depiction of America in his songs, especially in "L'Ete Indien", which is Indian Summer, a beautiful time of the year in my native New England.

When I met Joe, shortly after I arrived in France, I did not know who he was. I was sitting in a cafe accross the street from the Train Station, when Joe walked in and sat at a table with two of his friends. The girl I was with at the time, cried out, "it's Joe Dassin!", and I asked "who's that?"

She proceeded to explain who he was and that got me quite excited to be in the same room with a celebrity. Since I never head of him, she told me about some of his songs. She told me he was "American", and that his Father, Jules, was a very famous American Film Director, on exile in France. So I ran to a payphone and called my Father, a movie buff, if he ever heard of Jules or Joe Dassin. He said he did and asked why, so I explained to him that Joe was sitting a couple tables over from me. So my Dad said that he was on his way down. When my father arrived, he came over to my table, asked me to point out Joe and he walked over to Joe's table. I was a little shocked to see this, so I got ready for something to happen. Joe immediately got excited to meet my Father, and immediately engaged in very interesting conversation with my father on various subjects concerning his father Jules. My girl friend and I were eventually invited over to Joe's table and I admitted that I was a BIG fan of Joe's singing. As my girl friend got his autograph, I was very excited to see her "star-struck"gaze.

We hung out with Joe for about 45 minutes and I will never forget this day for as long as I lived. I told Joe that I was a drummer, and he told me to stick with it, that music is a great way to work, live and make a contribution to people's lives.