Chrissie Hynde and JP Jones have a leg up on the rest of us as far as doomed love stories go. The 59-year-old high priestess of rock and her 31-year-old mate, a scruffy, little-known Welsh guitarist by the name of JP Jones, have managed that seemingly impossible feat of transforming their tale of mismatched coupledom and inherent heartache into something uplifting and fruitful. As JP, Chrissie & The Fairground Boys, the two have met their fate head on and turned the pain of their May-December romance into the highly acclaimed album, Fidelity!. And let me just say, as a fan of messy, inconvenient pairings, rarely has love hurt so good.
Their unconventional love story began with a chance meeting at a party in London in November 2008 where Jones unabashedly approached Hynde who, five screwdrivers in, was propping up the bar. The gregarious, equally hammered Jones greeted the music legend with a "lechyd da" ( "cheers" in Welsh), and the two managed enough of a conversation for Hynde to ascertain that Jones was a musician who had recently gone solo after his band split. What lit her up though was discovering he'd grown up on a fairground in Wales. Anyone who knows anything at all about Hynde knows her fascination with fairgrounds and how she cut her rock ‘n’ roll teeth on performances by artists like Alice Cooper and Mitch Ryder and the Wheels at local outdoor carnivals in and around her native Akron, Ohio. Now he had her attention.
When the bar proved too noisy for the two to carry on a proper conversation, Hynde slipped Jones her number, told him to call her sometime, and then promptly headed to the US the following day for a tour supporting The Pretenders’ 2008 album, Break Up the Concrete. Within a few days, Jones texted Hynde wishing her “all the fairground luck for your show tonight.” She replied, “Write a song called 'Fairground Luck.'” And so he did. Jones sent it to her the very next day. “His voice stopped me in my tracks,” says Hynde. “I was totally seduced.” What Hynde never saw coming was that this charming young man, obviously up for a challenge, would not only chat with her by phone about love and music but that he would breathe new life into her famed career, now in its twilight. "He found me and sort of plucked me out of my own version of obscurity," she says. "It was like a soothing balm, to be surrounded by this new energy. It's been a revelation to me; like an angel."
The sweet and personable JP Jones, relatively unknown to US audiences, is a native of the southern seaside resort town of Porthcrawl, Wales. He grew up listening to European rock and yes, The Pretenders. His own band, Grace, had landed a recording deal with EMI and released an album in 2007 called Detours, but when that album and follow-up tour of the UK failed to cause a stir, the label cut Jones and his band free. Enter the intimidating, rebellious Chrissie Hynde. As the only constant member of The Pretenders throughout the band’s three-decades-long career, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is rock royalty. With her unflinching gaze, unapologetic swagger, and tough-chick sneer, Hynde is the yin to Jones’ kind, light-hearted yang. The melodious voice to his gravely one.
After the wrap of The Pretenders' tour, Hynde returned to the UK where she and Jones met for coffee. Clearly smitten with one another, the two spontaneously took off for Cuba, guitars in tow, where they would consummate their love — not in the bedroom, but in songwriting. They wrote in Cuban restaurants and in a big suite atop the famous Hotel Nacional de Cuba overlooking Havana. Surrounded by notebooks, empty rum bottles, and cigar butts, Hynde and Jones poured their hearts out in song, writing to each other, for each other, and about each other.
Unlike the many tragic tales of star-crossed lovers to come before, the two realized early on that there would be no happy ending for them. There’d be no marriage, no setting up house and filling it with dogs and babies. That time has yet to come for Jones but has already passed for Hynde, who has two grown daughters to two legendary musicians: Ray Davies of The Kinks and Jim Kerr of Simple Minds. Hynde and Jones had no plans to make an album together when they set off for Cuba, only an urgent need to redirect their desire and passion. They needed an outlet for their anguish. Two weeks into the trip, the couple had written the bulk of Fidelity!, which was released on Hynde’s own La Mina label on August 26, 2010. "This album is like the baby we could never have," says Jones.
Fidelity! is a love story told in song — eleven of them to be exact. It’s a joyous album that celebrates the ephemeral nature of relationships instead of lamenting it. Amid a backdrop of acoustic guitar-driven rock and folk tinged with blues and country (this from a woman who once scoffed at American country music), Hynde’s lyrics are as raw and brave as ever and expose a disarming emotional vulnerability. On "Perfect Lover” she sings: I've found my perfect lover but he's only half my age/He was learning how to stand when I was wearing my first wedding band/I found my perfect lover but I have to turn the page/But I want him in my kitchen and standing on my stage. With Hynde and Jones both singing lead, trading verses, and wrapping their contrasting voices around one another, there’s an intimacy to Fidelity! that makes the listener feel like they're eavesdropping on a conversation between a couple as they fall in love and then contemplate breaking up.
"For me, it's always been clear that music is a vehicle to encourage self-discovery," Hynde says. "That's my higher goal. And I think truthful music makes you feel joyful; it elevates your spirit. When your spirit is elevated, you're more open and attracted to things that are correct. So we've been truthful on this album. We've proven that two people can love each other, override their base desires, and distill the love into something musical, something elevated, something rock 'n' roll."
As for the future of the songwriting couple, Hynde says, “I can only think two years in advance and this is taking up my time for the next two years. I mean come on, The Pretenders? Who cares? I have done The Pretenders for years; I think I have served my time.”
Chrissie Hynde and her new band have just wrapped up a handful of dates supporting Lucinda Williams and hit the road mid-September for a US headlining tour. Check out the band’s website at www.jpchrissie.com for concert dates.
