Patrick Roy died today, because of his pancreatic cancer.

He was a French politician, member of the National Assembly, and a member of the French Socialist Party (left-wing), known among other things for his bright red jacket.

But, more importantly for us metalheads, he was a fan of heavy metal (starting with Led Zeppellin, but now leaning more towards Gojira and Opeth), which he defended on various occasions during the debates concerning the Hadopi law or the controversy about the Hellfest festival. You can check this DailyMotion video, but it's only in French, sorry. He often had a Rock Hard magizine in hand to prove his point, saying it was a cultural magazine (at that time, his right-wing opponents would cry and boo in outrage, of course).

And, as if defending Metal at the National Assembly wasn't enough, he was also the main promoter and programmer of the Metallurgicales festival in Denain, a French city of which he was the mayor. On 5 June 2010 he joined the French metal band Mass Hysteria on stage during the 2010 edition of the festival:



In November 2010, he revealed that he suffers a digestive cancer. In February 2011 he announced that he will come back to the National Assembly on March 15th and he did it, thanking the other congresswomen and congressmen for their support. Sadly, it wasn't enough, as he passed away last night.

Thanks for all you've done for our, for your music. You'll be sorely missed.

Source:

slate.fr