Two decades after leading the Pretenders out of London with a snarl
and some swagger, Chrissie Hynde isn't the same "Precious"
punkette who would tell you to 蔠well, you know what. But you still
might not want to get on her bad side. At 47, Hynde is a recently
remarried mother of two who likes to call music her hobby 霠which
explains long breaks such as the five years between her group's last
studio album, Last of the Independents, and the new Viva El Amor.
During the interim, the Ohio expatriate has lent her voice to animal
rights and environmental actions, nurtured a close friendship with Paul
and the late Linda McCartney (whose cover photo for Viva El Amor! is
one of the last shots she ever took), fell in love and married, and made
some guest appearances on others' albums, including Jeff Beck's
new Who Else? But she still kicks it, too, on the guitar-driven rock of
Viva El Amor! tracks such as "Legalise Me" (which features Beck
returning the favor) and in the biting lyricism of "Popstar," in which she
chides the lover who dumped her for a pretty young thing, and "Baby's
Breath," when she dresses down a paramour with lines such as "Why
did you bring me roses?/ Save 'em for someone who's dead." Time
has made her a bit softer, but the bite is still there. The album's title
means "Long Live Love," but anyone who listens will likely be moved
to shout "Long live Chrissie!"
There are a lot of love songs on the new album 霠some of which are
tender, even. Were these inspired by your own romance and
marriage?
Hynde: No. I wrote the album about three years ago. I haven't written anything
in three years, just 'cause I've been doing other things. I think I wrote the
album before I met him, but 蔠there might be a couple songs I finished since I
met him. "One More Time," maybe; that was a recent one.
But do you feel that there's a theme that ties the songs
together?
Well, yeah. The whole album was going to be called Biker,
like the last song on it, and it was all sort of about this biker
mentality, this biker ideology 霠you know, a bit outlaw,
antiestablishment, all the stuff rock music is usually about, I
guess. But my manager hated the name Biker so much, and
the heads of my record company are these two women in their
late 40s. They just don't get what bikers are about or what it
means. They dissuaded me heavily, and I thought "God, if they
think it sucks that much, maybe it does suck. And then I got
this Viva El Amor! idea, which was sort of like a slogan, more
punky. But the biker theme is the theme that kind of
permeates the album, I think.
You get a great solo out of Jeff Beck on "Legalise Me."
Did you hear him on it when you wrote that song?
I did kind of hear him. He just plays on the solo, and what I always wanted to
do, 'cause I know Jeff can play anything 蔠I really love it when he plays rock,
but he has a little tendency to do that less as he goes off to planet Beck all
the time. And I felt like if I was going to bestow any grace on the world at
all, it would be to get Jeff Beck to play rock guitar, which is what every rock
guitar lover dreams of. So when we did that song I said, "Wow, let's get Jeff to
play on this."
"Popstar," the first track, is pretty searing. Are you singing about
anyone in particular?
It's just about everybody, really. It's the story of a guy who's like my
ex-boyfriend who's going out with a girl who wants to be a pop star. It's just
me bitching about my sort-of successor. We just wanted to write a song that
sounded like "Get Off My Cloud," like a sort-of three-minute pop, that kind of
radio-friendly thing 霠well, like I'm always trying to write in a song.
Everything I do, that's the criteria.
You're kind of a forebear for the Lilith Fair generation. Are you excited
to be part of the tour this year?
Well, I haven't seen a Lilith tour. I should think it will be fun. It's gotta
be fun; there's a whole lot of bands on it, and that kinda festival vibe,
like the circus is coming to town vibe. That fact that it's a mainly
chicks kind of thing is kind of a novelty, but that seems like it will make
it different. Don't you want to see me in a flowy dress?
Chrissie Hynde in a dress?
Maybe. You'll have to come out to one of the Lilith shows and find out.
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