David Guetta on being an everlasting DJing icon: ‘I never thought it would last this long – but people are always going to want to dance’-Simon Gage-Entertainment – Metro

Nothing makes David happier than DJing for a young crowd (Picture: Stephanie De Sakutin / AFP via Getty Images)

‘How do you pronounce legendary?’ asks superstar DJ, writer, producer and multi-multi-millionaire David Guetta from his apartment in Paris. ‘Where do you put the accent there?’

He’s trying to describe Creamfields, the festival he’s been linked to pretty much ever since he was first starting out as a DJ – and an event he’s still excited to be part of in both its North and South incarnations.

‘I was a kid when I first played Creamfields,’ he says in an accent that still sounds quite French even after all these years. ‘It’s one of those legendary festivals that are so part of our culture. One of the key moments of my career was there.

‘I was kind of new and they didn’t want me to play the main stage because I wasn’t big enough so they put me in a tent for 10,000 people and three or four times more people than that came and the police shut us down. That’s how I started to have a hype in the UK, so Creamfields is part of my history.’

And that’s a history that includes 50million record sales, 10billion streams and a fortune from having sold his catalogue for a few reported to be in excess of £100million!

The first time I spoke to David was back at the beginning of his superstar status, when it felt like this was his moment… ‘And that moment has lasted 20 years,’ he laughs, not immodestly but at the idea that dance culture has proved to have a staying power way beyond what anyone predicted.

Performing energises David like nothing else (Picture: Neville Hopwood/Getty Images )

‘I remember a conversation with [mega DJs] Frankie Knuckles and David Morales, it was like talking to my masters. This was in 1992 and I’d booked them to play with me in Paris…’ back in the day when David was managing legendary – there’s that word again – club nights at Le Palace and Bains Douches… ‘and I said to them, “You’re booking so many gigs, you must be dying with all the work”, and they said to me, “Oh, we have five more years to go with dance music so we have to go on”.

‘I never thought it would last this long but the way I look at it is people are always going to want to dance.’

And he may have been regularly voted Best DJ in the world ever since and worked with the biggest stars out there – Kelly Rowland, Nicki Minaj, Jason Derulo, Sia, Little Mix, Ella Henderson, Becky Hill – on a string of Number One tracks and albums but David is far from resting on his laurels and is determined to stay what he calls ‘culturally relevant’. Which is where his current project, Future Rave, comes in.

‘When I started, I was 17 and the crowd was average 22,’ he says. ‘When I was 30, they were still 22 and now I’m 50, they’re still 22! But I think I’m still 22, I mean, for real. And I like playing for young people. We did Future Rave in New York and it was only kids.

David bringing the tunes at Creamfields (Picture: Geoffrey Hubbel)

The party never stops (Picture: Anthony Mooney)

‘I thought that was so cool that I can still inspire the younger generation. I loved it as much as having hits. Maybe it’s even more important.’

For someone who describes themselves as ‘hyperactive’, the lockdown was a challenge but a chance to rebalance – from travelling the world DJing to actually making music.

‘During Covid, I went from spending one day a week making music, maybe an hour here and an hour there, to seven days a week, all day, doing nothing else but music. Record companies are always complaining about artists not giving enough music and now they’re calling and saying, “David, you need to slow down. Please can you relax a little bit…” I have whole hard discs full of new music.’

But now he’s back touring and remembering how exhausting it is. You wonder why, with all those millions – Forbes magazine estimated he made £20-odd million a year quite apart from that catalogue money – he pushes himself so hard.

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‘A lot of my friends have been asking this question,’ he laughs. ‘But this is what I love! I’m blessed that I’m able to have my hobby as my job. The only difference is now I can do only the shows that I really love. I don’t need to compromise.

‘If they bring me a show for money but it looks like something that’s not going to be fun, I don’t do it.

‘But if they bring me a show that’s going to be super-cool, like Creamfields… why would I take away what makes me happiest in my life? Nothing makes me happier than that.’

David Guetta appears at Creamfields South on Friday and at Creamfields North on August 25-28.

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