SHE'S NO PRETENDER

Up close with one of rock's great front women...

After decades of documented toughness on and offstage, apprehension is considerable about what The Pretenders’ frontwoman will be like on the other end of the phone. But while the unmistakable voice sounds fierce, sharp, and quick, Chrissy Hynde comes across as notably kind and generous, even if she doesn’t suffer fools. “I’m quite normal and a homebody offstage,” she says from the confines of her London flat, a city the Ohio-born American has called home for decades.

Now 73, recent live performances show why her band has been in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for nearly 20 years. Whether it’s small theaters or stadiums (notably opening for Guns ‘n’ Roses and Foo Fighters), her vocals and guitar playing still scorch on ballads and rockers alike, as her band performs a cross-section of well-known tracks from what’s become a dozen studio albums over six (count ‘em!) decades.

It’s raining in London, so Hynde has no plans and no particular place to go (nirvana for a journalist). Besides, she expresses a keen interest in what someone from Asia has to say to her. A supposed 20-minute call lasts over an hour, and Hynde, a one-time music journalist herself, proves to be as inquisitive as her interviewer…

This is a London number, but where is home now? The U.S. or London?

Hynde: I’ve been in London since 1973, but I was back in the U.S. a few years ago. I had a restaurant in Ohio and I got an apartment above it. This was in downtown Akron. It was an amazing restaurant — one of the best. Actually, it was one of the best vegan restaurants I’ve ever been to. But I wasn’t there very often and Akron got hit badly economically, so I had to close it. Since then, I haven’t spent much time there.

When you played Hong Kong last (with Roxy Music), you got heckled pretty badly. Do you remember that?

Hynde: I remember one show like that. That might have been it. It could have been something to do with the sound. Then again, we went out and a lot of people were just sitting down in the front which I didn’t like. When you’re onstage you’re sort of hypersensitive. You want to see all the people in the back, but the people who were in the front were just sitting there. I do remember running offstage and being in a foul mood. But Phil Manzera from Roxy Music — and his wife — thought it was fantastic. So you never know what it’s like onstage. You can be having a lousy show and people think it’s great and vice versa.

What are your thoughts on Asia?

Hynde: It’s close to my heart because the last show I ever did with the original Pretenders was in Bangkok. We haven’t played a lot in Asia, but that’s going to change. It’s part of the game plan. We played two years ago in Australia and before that we did endless tours. The last two years, we wanted to change the strategy as I thought it would knock the rust off. I miss the band and want to play with them and redefine them. I want to see the world and not necessarily play with Neil Young as a support act traipsing across the country.

We did a lot of support tours. We’ll play them, but that’s not a real philosophy. And then you end up doing support tours and playing in small places. But then again, I like that.

We’ll do a new set but we won’t bore you with our new songs. Having said that, our last album was one of our favorites and we’ll play some songs off that. I know what it’s like as an audience member and if you don’t hear some of your new songs it’s like ‘F#ck off’ — so I take that into consideration.

I certainly think the band I have now is the best lineup since the original band. I think we’ll be hungry. That will add a lot of excitement to it. As I get older, I dig it more. You become more of whatever you are. If you’re depressed and miserable, you’ll become a creep. In my case, I can be with the band, rehearse, and go to Hong Kong and do a gig. Thank my lucky stars! It’s a f#cking riot! It seems to get better for me now. I have nothing to prove. I’m not nervous.

Do the songs take on different meanings now?

Hynde: I like to think that my songs have a timelessness to them. There’s no song that I sing that I can’t relate to. I was never singing about teenage angst. I can carry them all off with my hand on my heart.

Are there three favorites you’ve written?

Hynde: It changes. I love “Breaking Up The Concrete”. I love “Nothing Maker”, “Don’t Cut Your Hair”. I like the wild shit. I also like the earlier ones. Of course, it’s a good feeling when you’re playing to an audience that knows those songs. You’re playing to a photograph of an audience if nobody knows them. You have to stir it up.

What were your thoughts on the U.S. when you were there?

Hynde: Oh man, this is going back for over 40 years with me. The U.S. is too big! It’s hard to govern anything when it gets too big. It used to have regional flavor. You had AM radio. You had a different sound in Philly and San Francisco. But now it’s corporate and it’s the kiss of death. I left in 1973 because I could see the car culture would kill everything, the mall culture.

That happened in Akron. It was one of the fastest-growing cities, and when it started to collapse, everyone moved out. The foundation of the U.S. is a bit dubious. It was stolen from people who were living there and genocide is not a good foundation to start a country.

Factory farming, for instance, has destroyed not just the environment but people’s minds. I don’t get into politics. I just say be a vegetarian and stop killing animals. As far as how the U.S. has gone, it’s lost it, man, because they wanted everything cheap. No wonder the economy collapsed. They wanted everything made in sweatshops and it’s a no-brainer. The greed is not good.

Do you see that happening in the UK too now?

Hynde: I can see that happening in the UK, but the UK is smaller so it’s a lot more cosmopolitan. There’s a real mix of cultures here.

Rock autobiographies are certainly in vogue now and if anybody could write one, it would be you. You’re a writer and you’ve seen so much. When is it going to happen?

Hynde: It’s been an ongoing thing. Somebody was going to do one on the band at one point because I didn’t want the focus on me. But then John McEnroe, who is a friend, said ‘Do an autobiography’.

The reason why I haven’t is because I don’t need people talking about me. I like being onstage, but offstage I don’t like it at all. Everyone knows who I am, so there’s no point pretending to be somebody I’m not. I have a story. I don’t think of myself as a writer. I don’t want to do something that I’m average at and I’m appalled at the level of writing I see in bookstores. When I go there, I flip to the middle of a book and basically, it just comes down to sex. I certainly could do that. I have a few stories I could tell in that department. (NOTE: A couple of years after this interview, Hynde did indeed publish her memoir, titled “Reckless: My Life as a Pretender”).

But you’ve been part of some real pivotal musical moments. Talking to Mick Jones (of The Clash) about forming a band is just one of them.

Hynde: Musically, I could have been with Mick Jones and it’s true there are a lot of pivotal moments. When I talk to people who know these artists or know my music, people get excited. I hear people say that because they say it’s an interesting story — that I should give them what they want.

But I would only want to write a book because of cow protection. The only reason you want to be in a rock band is to get up onstage and have fun. If it’s not a laugh then f#ck off and I wouldn’t want such a book to be any other way.

Let’s talk about vegetarianism. You’ve always been passionate about it — almost militant at times in the late 80s and 90s. But do you think those attitudes are changing? And has it helped you physically?

Hynde: To be honest, those are all just by-products of vegetarianism. I was never considering my health. I was considering the animals. But it helps people, sure. I just spoke to a woman who does exposes on pig farms and she said the reason why she didn’t see me for a couple years is because she had cancer. She went on a completely organic diet and is now cured. You hear stories like that — everyone knows that a meat-free diet is much healthier. People choose to ignore it. I don’t know why. I’m not telling people what to do, but I’d love to influence people. I’ve done a lot of shows where I tell people to go f#ck themselves because I can smell the barbecue.

But there are misperceptions about what this is all about. I think that cow’s milk is one of the healthiest foods, but not when you buy it from the meat industry. They have to be treated sacredly. My philosophy comes from a Vedic philosophy, which is based in India, and I’ve been a vegetarian for over 40 years. From the neck down I’m no prize., but I’m no disaster. However, when I went to malls in Akron…wow! If you go to any mall in the Midwest, you can see the difference. And if I’m an advertisement for vegetarianism, then so be it.

Do you find that people are more receptive to it now, than when you were first performing?

Hynde: Vegetarians are now about three percent in the West. This is not a new idea. People repeat what they read in a book. People don’t research it very well. Most people are bogged down with tradition. It’s bullshit — fu#cking bullshit. Are they more receptive to it — good question! I’m bored of the subject, but it’s too important.

You’ve had so many career highlights, but I wanted to single out your duets with Frank Sinatra, Emmylou Harris and Michael Hutchence. What were those experiences like?

Hynde: Frank Sinatra — nobody will say no to an offer like that unless you’re a fu#king c##t. He’s one of the great singers of all time! I wasn’t in the room with him. We exchanged tracks. But I did my best. My Dad loved it. How many times do you do something that pleases your Dad? So it was a great musical experience.

Emmylou Harris — a goddess. We weren’t in the same room either, but I have sung with her since and we’ve become friends.

Michael Hutchence — a big highlight for me. But the record company management didn’t want to put the song we did out as a single, which I thought was a big mistake. Otherwise, it was good fun!

There are many experiences like that. This is what it makes it all worthwhile. I mean, I was waiting tables and then I’m onstage with Iggy Pop and much later, Kings of Leon. If someone said would you rather wait tables or do that, what would you choose?!

How about recording with U2 on “Pride (In The Name Of Love)”? How did that come about?

Hynde: Pride! It’s all odd shit, the way this stuff happens. I was playing in Dublin. I had just married Jim Kerr (Simple Minds’ lead singer), who was a friend of Bono’s. Bono said ‘I’ve got a little studio. Come hang out.’ He took me to his studio and Brian Eno was in there — and there are a whole bunch of people in the studio. Eno said ‘Listen to this demo’. And he said ‘Everybody who is not a professional, get out.’

So it was just me and Bono in the room. I sang the background vocals. It happened so fast and I wasn’t roped into it. I said ‘Okay, let’s go.” I can see it’s a classic now. I hear it now on the radio and say ‘Hey, that’s me!’ It’s not something I do often, but I’m not known for doing that song. But if you look at the credits you can see Christine Kerr on there.

So what are some lessons you’ve learned that you would import to others?

Hynde: Whatever you do, do your thing. It’s better to do your own thing and not even do it very well. Be yourself. Do your thing. A hippie slogan for sure, but it’s true.

After their Hong Kong set — 20 songs — that amply showed that this version of The Pretenders was in fine form, Hynde invited me backstage to meet the band and talk some more. She asks me to shake her left hand on account that her right one is sore from guitar strumming. There’s small chat about being in Asia, the tour, how they’re doing, and the like — all while original drummer Martin Chambers talks about England and creates lethal gin and tonics to share. “It’s Monkey Gin Scott,” he says mischievously, and it certainly was. Hynde declares that she isn’t on social media. “It seems like a waste of time — should I do it? Should I do it?” I tell her the fine points of communicating to her fans. Judging by the amount she does today, would like to think that whatever was said convinced her. And meanwhile, Chambers offers to make more gin and tonics with a smile. Just another show for them, but certainly a night in my veins…