![]() Hynde was represented by manager Ian Grenfell at Quietus Management, lawyer Andrew Myers at Clintons and accountant Pat Savage at YMU. The group’s latest album, “Hate for Sale,” was released earlier this year. While the Pretenders - which has always been built around the Ohio-born Hynde and her songs - have released 11 albums since they formed in London in 1978, the bulk of their hits date from their first few years: “Brass in Pocket,” “Talk of the Town,” “Message of Love,” “Back on the Chain Gang,” “Middle of the Road,” “2000 Miles,” “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” “My Baby,” “I’ll Stand By You” and more. Hynde’s influence as a female rock frontperson is beyond measure, yet it is all built upon her formidable catalog of hits. Hipgnosis has acquired 100% of Hynde’s music publishing catalog of 164 songs, including publishing and writer’s share (PRS) from the Pretenders and her other projects. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. I decided to go talk to Jack Nicholson instead, much less intimidating!īut another 13 years later it seemed that motherhood & maturity allowed Chrissie to “wear it well”, & as you will hear, I found her to be frank, thoughtful, & gracious in recounting her very beginnings from growing up in Akron, Ohio to eventually coming full circle-literally- to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just an Uber ride north in Cleveland.Capping a week that has seen the company acquire Big Deal Music Group and appoint several new top officers, Hipgnosis Songs announced that it has acquired the music catalog of Chrissie Hynde, founding member, lead vocalist and primary songwriter of pioneering rock band The Pretenders. As I approached her with my microphone in hand, suddenly I became aware of her steely stare & what felt to be an invisible force-field that projected about five feet in front of her that announced, “Do NOT put that thing in my face unless you want it embedded in your ear.” I spotted Chrissie Hynde standing in the doorway of her dressing room trailer, looking very sharp in a tailored sky-blue suit, with red henna highlights in her hair. ![]() ![]() My next encounter with Ms.Hynde was five years later, backstage at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia on July 13 1985, where I was interviewing rock’s biggest stars including Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, Phil Collins, Tom Petty, Ozzy Osbourne, Bryan Adams, even movie stars Tim Robbins & Jack Nicholson. The subsequent full album Pretenders II would peak at #7 UK, #10 in Billboard, but sadly it would be the final effort of the original band, the reasons Chrissie Hynde delves into quite frankly in this classic rock interview. ![]() Nevertheless, she and original members guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bass player Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers quickly followed up the impressive debut with an Extended Play mini-album containing two of my personal Pretenders favorites, “Message of Love” and the brilliant, surprisingly mature “Talk of the Town”. In the course of discussing “Precious”,”Mystery Achievement”, The Pretenders’ cover of The Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing”, and Chrissie’s authentic portrayal of a greasy spoon diner waitress in the video to “Brass in Pocket”, I must admit that I was intimidated by how this supposed rock rookie took control of the conversation, and bristled indignantly at any perceived slight by the interviewer. To say that our initial live interview was tense the next day is an understatement. Although the band had been there less than 24 hours, Chrissie had already spent the night in a Memphis jail, but not before she kicked out the rear window of a police cruiser which had been called to escort her away from the local TGI Friday’s restaurant. The first was my live radio interview on ROCK 103 while in Memphis during their first U.S. I’ll never forget my first two encounters with The Pretenders singer/songwriter.
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