For her new band, Rock Hall of Famer Chrissie Hynde refuses to take top billing, conduct interviews without her co-lead singer or perform any Pretenders songs.
"JP [Jones] and I are total collaborators. We're like two bandleaders," rock's most enduringly famous frontwoman said of her new group, JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys.
Two bandleaders, high on the fumes of something new and exciting.
Hynde, notoriously peevish in interviews, sounded positively serene on the phone last week from New Hampshire in a joint call with Jones. She was polite, patient and as passionate as any woman with a new band -- or a new man. Actually, the privacy-craving Hynde is unforthcoming about her relationship with the man or her old band, the Pretenders. But she is obviously giddy.
"I didn't see it coming. I didn't look for it. It's kind of a gift in my lap. I loved the other band," she said. "It's great to play new material and not have this legacy behind you that you're beholden to. It's very liberating. The band is amazing. It's a ball being onstage with them. Singing to the guy that I wrote all the songs with, and he's standing next to me -- it's just a joy and it's great to share the limelight."
However, there is a hiccup in the relations within JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys, who will perform Monday in Minneapolis: Hynde is 59 years old, Jones is 32. He even grew up with a picture of Hynde on his bedroom wall.
First, the back story. At a London party in November 2008, Jones, who'd had a few drinks, summoned the courage to approach Hynde, who also had been drinking. He said his band had just broken up; she was intrigued that he grew up on a Welsh fairground, or amusement park. They exchanged phone numbers. She went off on a Pretenders tour and, at her request, he sent her a song, "Fairground Luck." When she returned to London, they met for coffee and decided to write music together. On a whim, she invited him to go to Havana.
What happened in Havana in April 2009?