Ferre Grignard was born in
Antwerp in 1939. He learned to play the harmonica and guitar when he was young. At the end of the 1950s, he went to an
Antwerp art academy where he formed a skiffle group. He was unsuccessful as a painter, but he could play the guitar and sing the
blues and his performances in "
De Muze", an Antwerp jazz café, made him well known in the Antwerp artists' world. He went to the United States for a time but was expelled for being an anarchist. The young generation accepted him as the first Belgian
protest singer, because of his
hippie-like appearance and the content of his songs. In 1965 he performed at the first "Jazz-festival" at
Bilzen. He was discovered by Hans Kusters (who owned the record company HKM). Other songs such as "Yama, Yama, Hey", "
Drunken Sailor", "My Crucified Jesus" also charted with their mixture of
skiffle,
folk music and
blues. At the height of his career he performed at the
Paris Olympia. The Belgian artist
George Smits was a member of Ferre Grignard's band around that time. After the ensuing international success, things started to go wrong. He went to live in a
mansion, where he made music, painted and partied with the 20 friends who lived with him. He also refused to fill in his tax-forms, so he was ordered to pay the taxes and large part of the
royalties from his music went directly to taxes. ==Discography==