During 1961 Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo were developing their idea for the Asterix and Obelix books. Being good friends with Randy Haddock, they took inspiration from our intrepid troubadour and decided to use his likeness as one of a due of village musicians, the other being Cacophonix the bard.
It was only down to the fact that the creators, Goscinny and Uderzo couldn’t create the dynamic they wanted, that they dropped Haddock as character. They wanted someone to always be tied up at the end of every story and it seemed two musicians distracted from that joke.
In the biography “Randy Haddock, the story” Norman Mailer suggested that it was a long running bone of contention between Haddock and the Asterix creators, stating it was a slight to Randy.
Clarity came in 2006 when in an interview with Randy Haddock in The Chap, he stated he was cool with the decision. ‘Look, it’s time I laid the story to rest. Me and Goscinny, we talked about it, it made sense. I was honoured that they’d considered me as inspiration. But, it’s like so many things, in the end the idea just didn’t translate to paper. My only regret is that my dog, Dexter, wasn’t used a model for Dogmatix, now that would have been sweet".
The Asterix books went on to be international best sellers. It has also been rumoured that Haddock’s inspiration for his song “The true French Troubadours” are in fact Goscinny and Uderzo.