CHRISSIE HYNDE
Still happy on the chain gang
At 66, Chrissie Hynde has more than survived rock’n’roll. Best known as the front woman of American rock band The Pretenders, who formed in 1978, she’s outlived many in the industry, including her friend Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and, more recently, Tom Petty.
‘‘My plane can always go down,’’ says Chrissie Hynde, in her raucous drawl, hinting she isn’t planning on going anywhere. ‘‘None of us live very healthy lifestyles in rock’n’roll, that’s 100 per cent certain,’’ she says. ‘‘I mean it was a miracle Lemmy even made it to 70, God bless him.’’
Hynde kept her band going, even after losing two founding members tragically in the early 1980s – guitarist/ keyboardist James Honeymoon-Scott was just 25, and bassist Pete Farndon had just turned 30.
‘‘Loss isn’t anything new for me,’’ she says.
‘‘I have lost many close people over the years, but as I get older, seeing many of my music and film heroes slowly leave puts everything into some weird reality check. I’m more philosophical about these losses now,’’ she says. ‘‘My motto is: be happy even if it kills you, and then at least you’ll die happy.’’
The grandmother-of-two is still doing what she loves. She’s a vocal animal rights activist and has been a dedicated vegetarian since 1969. She’s never stopped making music and still enjoys touring. Will she consider retiring? ‘‘What’s that?’’ she asks. ‘‘I don’t plan on stopping just yet.’’
The Pretenders have just released their 12th studio album Alone, the first since 2008’s Break Up The Concrete.
Alone was intended to be a solo album, but quickly morphed into a Pretenders release. Hynde moonlights with various musicians on the album, including 50s rocker Duane Eddy, Kenny Vaughan of The Fabulous Superlatives and Richard Swift, formerly of The Shins and now a touring bassist with The Black Keys.
Hynde went to Nashville to record with The Black Keys’ Grammy awardwinning producer and musician Dan Auerbach, who had only received eight demos ahead of her studio time.
‘‘He told me it didn’t matter I had such few songs, we’d flesh it out once I got to his place. He is the most chilled guy I know. Nothing fazes him,’’ Hynde says.
Alone contains all those crucial Pretenders hooks – subtle punk prowess, new wave nuances and rock licks aplenty, but there’s an undercurrent of bluesy garage grit that is reminiscent of the Black Keys’ earthed rumble, too. There are ballads, songs about self-loathing, tracks about jealousy and dealing with the vices of getting older. ‘‘I can’t say Dan and I were mates before we worked together, but when I mentioned to my manager he was someone I’d love to produce my album, we got talking and made it happen,’’ Hynde says.
Songs like Roadie Man had been in Hynde’s head for more than 25 years – even her friend Elvis Costello told her it was time to be written. Others, like Alone, were written in 15 minutes. ‘‘There’s another song I Hate Myself –ana capella track that I sang straight into the microphone with no music at all. I added some cool guitar hooks and called it a cowrite,’’ she says.
Hynde, who, with The Pretenders, is about to support Stevie Nicks on her short tour of New Zealand, says she’s not interested in playing multiple hour-long sets, a la Bruce Springsteen. What her fans might anticipate is a duet, with Nicks doing a Petty cover of Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.
‘‘I will never play a three-hour show. I got a baby out in four hours!’’ she says with a laugh. ‘‘I don’t want the audience looking at their watch thinking ‘when the f... will they get off’.’’
Hynde was born in Akron, Ohio, and moved to London in 1973. She stumbled on the punk scene in 1976 and wanted to start a band. She was hanging out with the bad ass rockers Motorhead, scored a writing gig with music bible NME, worked at Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s SEX shop and by the late 70s The Pretenders was a dream come true.
‘‘I never thought I could pull it off and be in a band, least of all a successful one,’’ Hynde says.
The Pretenders went on to sell more than 25 million albums and are bestknown for their hit songs Brass In Pocket, I’ll Stand By You, Back On The Chain Gang and Don’t Get Me Wrong. ‘‘First of all, I was a girl, so everyone thought whatever I would do musically would be a novelty act. I was too shy to play around guys back then. But when punk started in 1976 I was getting into the punk mentality. Nobody made any comment of the fact I was a girl. I could play the guitar since I was a teenager. It was mainly about an attitude, rather than music. We never anticipated the success that came our way, hell no.’’ In 2015, Hynde released her autobiography Reckless. She admits she waited until her parents died before she wrote it.
‘‘I never wanted to write a book, but you get to a certain age and want to turn the page and put things behind you. It helped me move on, but there’s probably more to say.’’
Earlier this year, Animal Aid dumped her as a patron due to her position on the alternative farming method of Ahimsa farming. She’s not losing sleep over it. Hynde is now venting and sharing her views on Facebook posts. Pretenders fans will know her vegetarian views have always crept into all her albums. ‘‘I have gone to jail for animal rights,’’ Hynde says of being arrested outside a Paris KFC in 2003. ‘‘My best friend Ingrid Newkirk is the head of PETA, Linda McCartney was also my best friend who believed in animal rights like me and Morrissey, too,’’ she says.
‘‘I am absolutely flying the flag at all times on these issues, but the irony is once I said I supported non-violent farming, I alienated a lot of vegans.‘‘
❚ Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders are joining Stevie Nicks for her 24 Karat Gold Tour when it visits Auckland (Spark Arena, November 20 and 21) and Dunedin (Forsyth Barr Stadium, November 24).
"I never thought I could pull it off and be in a band, least of all a successful one." Chrissie Hynde