Johnny Hallyday comeback after brush with death

Veteran French rocker Johnny Hallyday, a legend in his homeland, is gearing up for a comeback tour two years after a health scare which nearly killed him in his adopted home of Los Angeles. In a tribute to the city "where they saved my life," the 68-year-old will start the more than 50-show tour in a historic theater here, aiming to "make the public tremble with emotion," he told AFP. "It's like singing at home," said the famously dazzling-eyed Gallic singer, in affable mood between rehearsals in Burbank, in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles. The star, who lives in the chic ocean-front Pacific Palisades district with his wife Laeticia and their daughters Joy and Jade, recalls the "accident which happened, which everyone knows about." Hallyday underwent emergency surgery and was briefly put into an artificial coma in December 2009 after falling ill on the flight from Paris, where he had a hernia operation days before. The tour he was on at the time, Tour 66, was canceled. "It's an American doctor who saved my life. It's thanks to him that I am here today," said the singer, known as the "French Elvis." "For me it's a bit like re-starting what I didn't finish the last time, in Los Angeles, the city where they saved my life. Morally, it's important for me," he added. Rehearsals began at the end of March. He started out with about 40 songs, reducing them to 25 that will be in the show. "We took old ones and new ones, from the 1960s and 70s to the present day," he said. With a repertoire of more than 1,000 tunes, he was spoiled for choice -- although some were out of the question. "Some songs have dated, in particular due to the lyrics," he said. "Some went down very well in the 60s but today seem a bit lightweight. "Da Dou Ron Ron," for example, I can't do that anymore!" Friendly and engaging, dressed all in black with a silver crucifix on this chest and his legendary blue eyes, Johnny seems totally at home surrounded by his musicians, led by Yarol Poupaud. "For the moment we're working on the basics: rhythm with the guitars. Then we'll add the brass section and backing vocals," he said, describing the tone as "blues-rock." The opening concert will be at the Orpheum, a 2,000-seat theater in downtown Los Angeles where he plans to "break the show in, and rework the running order if we need to." But the relatively small scale of the show will transform later in the tour to mega-concerts in the summer, where Hallyday -- Johnny to his French fans -- will "try to find things which will make the public tremble with emotion." "I try to give people what I want to see from other artists," he said, adding that for the big shows that means "a spectacle, because if we're just coming to sing some songs with the group we would go to clubs, not stadiums." The singer remains discreet about exactly what he's got up his sleeve, but says he will give fans "what they are waiting for. They want to take part in a show that I put on with them, hear songs they know but also new ones." The concert will be split into three sections: rock and roll at the start, then an acoustic part, followed by a section backed by a 70-member symphony orchestra, as well as his own group. Hallyday has already decided how he will arrive on stage, in spectacular style, but is keeping it secret. "It will be a surprise. I always try to find something impressive. But it's becoming more and more difficult, because I've already done so many things".