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A founding member of The Wildhearts, Chris ‘CJ’ Jaghdar had two spells with the band, the most recent of which ended acrimoniously in 2022. Here, the guitarist and singer talks about his eighth solo album, Devil, and the possibility of a third and final chapter with The Wildhearts following Ginger’s recent terminal illness diagnosis.
Devil retains the catchiness for which you are known, but does your music get angrier the older you become?
Yeah, and it’s intentional. I love punky rock’n’roll. My ‘safe word’ is country and western. If you hear that from me, I’ve been kidnapped.
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Is it sometimes hard to balance the ‘fizz’, for want of a better term, and the fury?
Not really. I’ve always liked a good melody and the fire of a good, hard riff – the honey and the crack, if you will.
Talking of HoneyCrack, Prozaic, the debut album from your post-Wildhearts band, recently turned thirty. Would you work with Willie Dowling again?
Willie has absolutely no intention of doing anything HoneyCrack-esque. Which is a shame, as I consider that album to be his greatest achievement. He should be grateful for having been given that chance thanks to my connection to The Wildhearts.
With its lyric of: ‘When I tasted fame I got it all so wrong’, One Of The Boys, your new album’s first single, sounds worryingly like a goodbye note.
It might be a goodbye. It’s getting harder for me to find shows. That means I must sell more physical product to make an income. Thankfully my fanbase is quite old and still buys those things, but I’m still not sure whether Devil will be my last album.
It gets progressively harder for independent artists. To a new breed of ‘fan’, music seems to have become reduced to a mere commodity.
I feel privileged to have made a living from music for forty years, but I agree with that statement. Back then we had to go looking for music. It was like prospecting for gold. You don’t have to do that any more. It no longer feels precious.
On social media you recently admitted that if you could go back and pick up a saucepan rather than a guitar, you would.
It’s true. I come from a family of amazing cooks, and food has always been important in my life. If I could, I would go back and be a chef and you’d be eating in my restaurant right now.
You communicated with Ginger after he announced that due to cancer he has just two to three years left to live. What can you tell us of that conversation?
I sent him an honest and open message. We hadn’t spoken in three years because The Wildhearts ended badly. His diagnosis came as a shock, though I wasn’t shocked that he decided against treatment – that’s a very Ginger-esque stance. Although I said he didn’t need to reply to my message, he did, and with a really nice message.
I built a bridge between us. Whether or not Ginger decides to come over that bridge and meet me in the middle is up to him, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t love to get myself, Danny [McCormack, bass] and Ritchie [Battersby, drums] back together again to close the circle. [Note: Ginger has publicly responded to CJ’s reunion suggestion].
Devil is available now. CJ will support Ricky Warwick on tour next month – tickets are on sale now.
