Blue Lady Graham Brazier's Grieving Soulmate

The rocker’s fiancée shares their love story.

He was a 59-year-old rock legend. She was a 37-year-old hairdresser and a single mum. But when they met, it was the start of something beautiful.

Graham Brazier, the frontman of iconic Kiwi rock band Hello Sailor, died in 2015. But this week, the musician, poet and second-hand bookshop owner is reaching back through time with his last solo album, Left Turn at Midnite.

The posthumous album’s release on May 5 – the day before what would have been Graham’s 65th birthday – is bittersweet for Jo Wild, the partner he tragically left behind after a fatal heart attack.

Many of the songs on the album were written about Jo and their life together. Their five-year relationship was a period of profound happiness for them both and it’s taken Jo months to be able to listen to her fiancé’s musical swansong without shedding tears of loss and heartbreak.

Twenty months after Graham collapsed, sending a bowl of rice bubbles crashing to the floor of the health rehabilitation unit he was scheduled to leave that day, the box of tissues is never far away as Jo talks to Woman’s Day about the man so many Kiwis held dear to their hearts.

The love of her life was a household name. His songs, including classic “Blue Lady”, have gone down in rock ’n’ roll history. But in the beginning, for Jo at least, he was just “the guy in the bookshop” down the road from where she lived.

Instant spark

Jo met Graham for the first time when she was just 18 and he was 40. At an Auckland bar, her then-boyfriend had turned to the bloke next to them and said, “I hear Graham Brazier’s playing tonight.” The bloke laughed and replied, “I am Graham Brazier!”