Said Chrissie Hynde, responding to questions in "Chrissie Hynde: ‘I’m more relaxed now. Ageing is like being a pothead again’/The Pretenders frontwoman and punk pioneer takes questions from Observer readers and famous fans on her relentless creativity spanning half a century, rethinking her hippy youth, and her cruelty-free farm" (The Guardian).
August 6, 2023
"I don’t mind getting older. I do mind getting uglier. Come on, there’s only one thing we know of that is definitely going to happen to us."
"That’s all the information we have in this life. You know, a lot of my friends didn’t get old. I’m not a worrier, by nature – and there are so many great things about getting older. For example, I don’t think there’s very many things that I know now that I didn’t know when I was 16 – but there’s a big difference between knowing something and realising it. Realising something takes 50 years. I’m more relaxed now, if you can believe it. This is the real mellow version of me. Ageing is like being a pothead again. Though that’s not to say there are not things that wind me up daily."
Said Chrissie Hynde, responding to questions in "Chrissie Hynde: ‘I’m more relaxed now. Ageing is like being a pothead again’/The Pretenders frontwoman and punk pioneer takes questions from Observer readers and famous fans on her relentless creativity spanning half a century, rethinking her hippy youth, and her cruelty-free farm" (The Guardian).
Said Chrissie Hynde, responding to questions in "Chrissie Hynde: ‘I’m more relaxed now. Ageing is like being a pothead again’/The Pretenders frontwoman and punk pioneer takes questions from Observer readers and famous fans on her relentless creativity spanning half a century, rethinking her hippy youth, and her cruelty-free farm" (The Guardian).
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A guy I went to high school with posted on Facebook that he likes being old! The fuck! I’m not old.
Dennis Quaid is my hero. Married for the fourth time to a woman in her thirties. He’s 69. I just need to execute on that.
Just need to push to keep the Old Man out.
I stopped listening to her when she was supposed to play in a benefit concert sponsored by L.A. classic rock station KLOS for 9/11 family and first responders, but told the station she wouldn't play as long as there was an American flag hanging in the studio. Fuck her with a flagpole. At that point I began thinking of them as The Poseurs.
Sounds like she now enjoys the peace that Jesus offers to give when he says “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid “
Is that want Marxists call the opiate of the people?
Getting old is the worst thing in the world, except for the alternative to getting older.
I have never been a big Pretenders fan, but reading the Q and A with CH I have much more respect for her. Look at what she says below about Vietnam protests, hippies, Nixon.
"But if I’m honest, my lasting thoughts on that whole wider situation is that all of us hippies were conned, in some ways, by the peace and love thing. During the Vietnam war there was a draft system, and if you were in university, you didn’t get drafted. My dad had been a marine in the war and my parents were hard- working ordinary people. They didn’t go to university, but they worked to put me there. All of us who were against the war, we were in the university, but the kids whose parents couldn’t put them there were in Vietnam. That is what us hippies didn’t see. We’d see Green Berets coming back from Vietnam, you know, and we’d be shouting and giving them the finger and everything. Now I’m ashamed of that. Those kids were 19, like me, but they didn’t have a choice. Looking back, I realise I was conned and got it wrong. No politician sent their own kids to Vietnam. If they’d had to, they would have thought differently about it."
While Hynde may agree with elements of the leftist orthodoxy, I respect that she's never been slave to it, or its masters.
That is what us hippies didn’t see. We’d see Green Berets coming back from Vietnam, you know, and we’d be shouting and giving them the finger and everything. Now I’m ashamed of that. Those kids were 19, like me, but they didn’t have a choice. Looking back, I realise I was conned and got it wrong.
I love Chrissie Hynde. No one like her. She is the opposite of the cookie-cutter pop-cult female singer parade we suffer now.
Thanks for posting this, Ann!
Lots of juicy stuff at the bottom:
Like this:
Johnny Marr asks Chrissie:
"Not many people know that you were at Kent State University when the National Guard shot and killed four students (the subject of the Neil Young song Ohio). That must’ve have been insane. What are your thoughts about that time?"
Chrissie responds:
"That’s a huge subject, Johnny. I was there; I heard the shots. I was right in the middle of it and I knew one of the guys that got killed. We were protesting at Nixon invading Cambodia. Was it a defining moment for me? Well, I already knew I wanted to move on. I knew I was never going to finish school, that I was just biding my time [to get away]. But if I’m honest, my lasting thoughts on that whole wider situation is that all of us hippies were conned, in some ways, by the peace and love thing. During the Vietnam war there was a draft system, and if you were in university, you didn’t get drafted. My dad had been a marine in the war and my parents were hard- working ordinary people. They didn’t go to university, but they worked to put me there. All of us who were against the war, we were in the university, but the kids whose parents couldn’t put them there were in Vietnam. That is what us hippies didn’t see. We’d see Green Berets coming back from Vietnam, you know, and we’d be shouting and giving them the finger and everything. Now I’m ashamed of that. Those kids were 19, like me, but they didn’t have a choice. Looking back, I realize I was conned and got it wrong. No politician sent their own kids to Vietnam. If they’d had to, they would have thought differently about it."
I don't mind getting ugly. Ugly I can handle. It's the increase in pain that gets me.
I've probably told this story before.
Years ago... many years now...
With tickets to the Neil Young show at Red Rocks in hand.... after a late arrival, parked in Egypt, we hiked up the big hill to get in. Could here Chrissie and the Pretenders as we hiked. Wow is sounded good. So freaking good.
We missed most of it. *ffff*
Neil Young's show was a total snooze. We missed the best part. The opening act.
I found it interesting to learn that aging is like being a pothead. Having started university before marijuana became socially acceptable, I never once experienced its effects. That said, I am currently experiencing the more advanced effects of aging, and I'm happy to learn I haven't really missed anything worthwhile by my lifelong pot abstention.
I've always been a big fan of the Pretenders and Chrissie Hynde. It's nice to see she's aging with class and dignity.
Compare her with Madonna, they both began their careers in 1978. Who has aged better?
If you’re happily married to a husband who is in love with you, there will be one pair of eyes who will always see you as beautiful.
She gave up meat long before she gave up cigarettes, but there's no reason to question her judgment on other matters. (/s)....Growing old isn't all that bad, but some medical and surgical procedures are as inevitable as they are daunting. I can't think of any plus side to death, but if you're old enough or sick enough, it must come as a relief. Not much consolation in that thought, but that's all there is.....Life on earth is a wildly improbable event. Perhaps something even more improbable happens after our brief moment. I don't entirely rule it out. At any event, given the vast extent of the cosmos, only an infinitesimal fraction of matter gets to enjoy any kind of life. Even an inchworm has reason to rejoice at its good fortune to have rudimentary knowledge of existence....I've been much luckier than the average inchworm but have had a somewhat less storied existence than Ms. Hynde, but it's all good.
The sharp edges of ageing hit women in different ways than men. Beautiful women lose a superpower when their looks fade... As a male, I never particularly minded losing my extraordinary good looks. It was sort of a relief when women stopped writing their phone numbers on their panties and throwing them at me. An unsanitary habit especially when it happens while dining....I did mind losing some of my physical capabilities. No, not sex. Sex was sort of like tennis. I'd have a few good rallies and then double fault three times in a row. On balance, they were more productive of frustration than fulfillment. I was just as glad to give them both up....I did mind losing my ability to jog a few miles. It's perhaps a comment on the utter futility of my life, but nothing gave me such a profound sense of well being as running in circles for an hour....I've heard grandchildren can be quite comforting when they visit you in the hospice, but in the absence of God, there are no ultimately winning hands.
I have been a huge fan of Hynde and her band from their very first album.
Chrissie, as always, telling the brutal truth.
Getting old is not for sissies.
Great talent but she never was much of a looker.
"I do mind getting uglier."
She sang about this decades ago.
Time the Avenger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbTYnEB1jRA
Just because.
Tattooed Love Boys
Pretenders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yog-meAq1so
punk pioneer?
She's been pop from the get go.
There's lots of things Chrissie andI would disagree about but "aging's" not one of them.
Many people don't get old and die; they keep on fully living until the end. Not the same as 'pretending' to be 20 or 40 or 50 years younger. My DOB is about as relevant to me as my Zodiac sign.
I was at the Castlebar music festival in 1981 and1982 in Castlebar Ireland, the middle of fucking nowhere. Chrissie Hynde sp? Played that late afternoon and I made distinct eye contact with her at age 13. Say what you like. That was fucking real!
"hear"
oy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlOV6ywJt7s
Wow, I didn’t know there were any Green Berets who returned from Vietnam at nineteen.
Q Would you do it all again?
A. No. Not if I didn't have to
Poignant and unexpected.
Am I the only one who thinks of Rush Limbaugh when someone mentions Chrissie Hind or The Pretenders?
Also--not punk. The Pretenders, The Cars, Blondie, hell Tom Petty. Pop Rock.
I enjoyed the interview. It got me wondering how she worked things out with Rush Limbaugh using her song, "My City Was Gone," as his opening music. Well, not Chrissie, but her publishing company objected to Rush using it. When Chrissie found out, she made a deal with Rush where he paid her approximately $100,000 for use of the song, which she donated to an animal rights charity. Rush was very grateful to her because by then the song had become his trademark. To make the story even better, when Trump awarded the Medal Of Freedom to Rush, Chrissie wrote to the president and thanked him! It turns out her late father had been a huge fan of Rush. She wrote to Trump, "The other day when you gave that award to Rush Limbaugh, my father would have been so delighted. He loved listening to Rush, which is why I allowed my song, 'My City Was Gone', to be used on his radio show. My father and I didn't always see eye-to-eye. We argued a lot but isn’t that the American way? The right to disagree without having your head chopped off?" I love this so much, that we still have people who strongly disagree but can manage to get along in a civil manner.
I always wondered why she didn't get more respect as a rock chick. Everybody Ooo's and aahhh's over Bonny Raitt and Madonna and whoever else, but Hynde rawked. And didn't do it as a sexy little fluffball either.
Middle of the Road is an awesome song and even awesomer video.
"Hippy"? Hippie.
Loved Chrissie's voice. One of the coolest.
"I stopped listening to her when she was supposed to play in a benefit concert sponsored by L.A. classic rock station KLOS for 9/11 family and first responders, but told the station she wouldn't play as long as there was an American flag hanging in the studio. Fuck her with a flagpole. At that point I began thinking of them as The Poseurs."
Did Chrissie Hynde ever strike you as a reverent, flag-loving American? You really aren't very perspicacious, are you?
"'Sounds like she now enjoys the peace that Jesus offers to give when he says 'Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'
"Is that want Marxists call the opiate of the people?"
Well...isn't it?
"punk pioneer?
"She's been pop from the get go."
Well, "punk" is just a sub-form of pop.
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