Chrissie Hynde Says She Won’t Play Pretenders’ Hits Anymore
Chrissie Hynde's future shows won't include Pretenders' best-known songs.
"I never wanted to go there in the first place, but [I] was trying to keep myself alive and pay the bills," she says in a new Facebook post. "And yes, I know that’s no reason to be in a rock band. I was just too scared to go back to waitressing. But those greatest hits / ballads days are now behind me. If anyone wants to come and see me in the future, it’s going to be punk rock [and] no hits."
Hynde has no current touring plans for 2022. Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne is performing with his own band, "so at least one of us is staying in shape," Hynde said earlier this year. "I'm more like a slowly deflating rubber doll. Yes, that kind."
Hynde revealed, however, that a new Pretenders album could be on the way soon. She confirmed in May that they'd finished recording, though no further details were announced.
She compared the project's genesis with her more jazz-inflected second solo album from 2019. "It started out as more of a Valve Bone Woe sort of thing, but morphed into a rock thing," Hynde said. "I guess I just can’t help it. I know I shouldn’t name drop, but in the words of Neil Young: 'She’ll be rocking till she drops ...'"
The most recent Pretenders album, 2020's Top 30 U.K. hit Hate For Sale, was the first since 2002's Loose Screw to feature her co-founding bandmate Martin Chambers on drums.