Jo Whiley on guilty pleasures, Madonna and the disabled sister that changed her outlook on life
ok.co.ukIt’s been 30 years since DJ Jo Whiley first landed on BBC Radio 1, co-presenting The Evening Session. Now aged 58, she’s in a new phase of her life; preparing for an empty nest, enthusiastically gardening (she’s a little obsessed with growing pumpkins), and dealing with feelings about her own mortality.The one thing she’s not concentrating on, though, is slowing down. “As long as I enjoy it and people still want to dance to the songs I play and hear my voice, I’ll carry on,” she tells us. “I don’t see any reason to stop as long as I still love music and I still love talking to people.There’s an evolution with all the different things I do, and new people come along, but that doesn’t mean you’re not ‘necessary’.
I mean, we still needed Steve Wright in our lives, we still needed Annie Nightingale championing music, and they always have a place in people’s lives. “My life is richer and I do different things now.
I do the gardening and everything else, but first and foremost I love the music I play and the job that I do so I don’t want to stop.
I don’t know what I’d do with myself.” Backing up Jo’s philosophy is the thing at the top of her to-do list – preparing to DJ her biggest gig yet (around 200,000 people) at the Isle of Wight festival in June.
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