Christine Ellen Hynde (born September 7, 1951) is an American-British singer, songwriter, and musician. She is a founding member of the rock band the Pretenders and is the band's lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter. Hynde is the band's only original member and is the only continuous member of the Pretenders, having appeared on every studio album released by the band.
Hynde formed the Pretenders in Hereford, England, in 1978, with Pete Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott, and Martin Chambers. She has also recorded a number of songs with other musicians, including Frank Sinatra, Cher, and UB40. Hynde recorded her first solo album, Stockholm, in 2014. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 as a member of the Pretenders.
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Early life
Hynde was born in Akron, Ohio, United States, the daughter of a part-time secretary and a Yellow Pages manager, and grew up in nearby Cuyahoga Falls. She graduated from Firestone High School in Akron but stated: "I was never too interested in high school. I mean, I never went to a dance, I never went out on a date, I never went steady. It became pretty awful for me. Except, of course, I could go see bands, and that was the kick. I used to go to Cleveland just to see any band. So I was in love a lot of the time, but mostly with guys in bands that I had never met. For me, knowing that Brian Jones was out there, and later that Iggy Pop was out there, made it kind of hard for me to get too interested in the guys that were around me. I had, uh, bigger things in mind."
Early career
Hynde became interested in hippie counterculture, Eastern mysticism, and vegetarianism. While attending Kent State University's Art School for three years, she joined Sat. Sun. Mat., a band which included Mark Mothersbaugh, later of Devo. Hynde was also caught up in the Kent State massacre on May 4, 1970, in which the boyfriend of one of her friends was among the four victims.
In May 1973, Hynde moved to London. With her art background, she got a job in an architectural firm but left after eight months. It was then that she met rock journalist Nick Kent and landed a position at the music magazine NME (New Musical Express), writing what she subsequently described as "half-baked philosophical drivel and nonsensical tirades." Afterwards Hynde got a job at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's clothing store, Sex. Hynde attempted to start a band in France, before her return to Cleveland in 1975, and joined a rhythm and blues group, Jack Rabbit.
After living in Tucson, she returned to France in 1975 at the invitation of Michael Fradji Memmi, bass player of the Frenchies (fr), which she joined as the singer. She returned to London in 1976 in the midst of the early punk movement. At one point she tried to convince Steve Jones and then Johnny Rotten (of the Sex Pistols, who were managed by McLaren), to marry her to get her a work permit. Hynde's version of this episode has it that Rotten "offered to go to a registry office with me and do the unmentionable," but when he subsequently withdrew, Sid Vicious volunteered to take his place. Upon arrival at the registry office the following morning, they found it "closed for an extended holiday" and were unable to attend the following day due to Vicious making a court appearance. In late 1976, Hynde responded to an advertisement in Melody Maker for band members and attended an audition for the band that would become 999. Jon Moss (who would later be in Culture Club) and Tony James of Generation X also auditioned. Later, Hynde tried to start a group with Mick Jones from the Clash.
After the lack of success with the band, Malcolm McLaren placed her as a guitarist in Masters of the Backside but she was asked to leave the group just as it became the Damned. After a brief spell in the band Johnny Moped, Mick Jones invited Hynde to join his band on their initial tour of Britain. Hynde recollected of that period,
It was great, but my heart was breaking. I wanted to be in a band so bad. And to go to all the gigs, to see it so close up, to be living in it and not to have a band was devastating to me. When I left, I said, "Thanks a lot for lettin' me come along," and I went back and went weeping on the Underground throughout London. All the people I knew in town, they were all in bands. And there I was, like the real loser, you know? Really the loser.
The Pretenders
In 1978, Hynde made a demo tape and gave it to Dave Hill, owner of the Real Records label. Hill stepped in to manage her career, and began by paying off the back rent owed on her rehearsal room in Covent Garden, London. Hill also advised Hynde to take her time and get a band together. In the spring of 1978, Hynde met bass guitarist Pete Farndon and they selected a band consisting of James Honeyman-Scott (guitar, vocals, keyboards) and Martin Chambers (drums, vocals, percussion). The name "the Pretenders" was inspired by the Sam Cooke version of the Platters' 1955 R&B hit song "The Great Pretender."
They recorded a demo tape (including "Precious", "The Wait," and a Kinks cover, "Stop Your Sobbing"), handed it to Hynde's friend Nick Lowe, produced a single ("Stop Your Sobbing"/"The Wait"), and performed their first gig at a club in Paris. The single was released in January 1979 and hit no. 33 in the UK. A second single "Kid" followed to similar success in July 1979. In November 1979, the Pretenders released their first signature single "Brass in Pocket" in the UK, which hit UK number 1 on January 19, 1980, the same date as their eponymous first album. Both went on to similar chart success worldwide.
The band released an EP album, Extended Play, on March 30, 1981; they released Pretenders II later in the summer. "Talk of the Town" and "Message of Love" were on both. The Pretenders lineup changed repeatedly over the next decade. Honeyman-Scott died of a drug overdose on June 16, 1982, just days after Farndon had been fired from the band. Farndon also died of a drug overdose the following year. After re-forming with a caretaker lineup (Martin Chambers, Billy Bremner, Tony Butler, and Jeremy Allom) for their next single, "Back on the Chain Gang", the band settled down with Robbie McIntosh (guitar) and Malcolm Foster (bass) during the recording of their next album, the worldwide hit Learning to Crawl. Chambers left the band in the mid-1980s before the Get Close album was released in 1986. The album included the hits "Don't Get Me Wrong" and "My Baby." Amidst the ever-changing lineup, Hynde endured as the sole original Pretender until Chambers' return in the mid-1990s. Hynde was the only stable member of the band during this period. In 1994, the band had another hit, the ballad "I'll Stand by You."
Hynde continued with the Pretenders into the new century, both in new recording as well as multiple tours worldwide. New Pretenders albums emerged in 2002 (Loose Screw), 2008 (Break Up the Concrete,) and 2016 (Alone).
Other musical projects
Hynde, along with Curved Air's Sonja Kristina, sang backing vocals on Mick Farren's 1978 album Vampires Stole My Lunch Money and also on Hurt by Chris Spedding. She also sang backing on a track, "Nite Klub", on the Specials' eponymous debut album. Hynde sang a duet with INXS on their album Full Moon, Dirty Hearts in 1993. She appears on the title track of the album. Hynde sang the vocals on the track "State of Independence Part II" on a Moodswings album named Moodfood, which was played during the closing credits on the soundtrack of Single White Female. She provided backing vocals on Morrissey's single "My Love Life" in 1991 and again on b-side "Shame Is The Name" in 2009.
Hynde recorded a duet with Frank Sinatra on his 1994 album Duets II. They performed the song "Luck Be a Lady." In 1995, Hynde made an acting appearance as fictional character Stephanie Schiffer on the US television comedy Friends. She was in the episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus", in which she performed "Angel of the Morning" and the comedy song "Smelly Cat" (which she co-wrote) with Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay on acoustic guitar. Also in 1995, Hynde sang a cover of "Love Can Build a Bridge" with Cher and Neneh Cherry. Eric Clapton appeared on the track, supplying the lead guitar solo that is featured in the song's instrumental bridge.
In 1997, the EMI publishing company issued a cease and desist request to Rush Limbaugh, who for years had been using an edited instrumental version of Hynde's song "My City Was Gone" for the broadcast's opening theme. When the request came to Hynde's attention during a radio interview, she said her parents loved and listened to Rush and she did not mind its use. They agreed to a royalty contract which she retained and at one time used for a payment to PETA to raise awareness of chemical testing on animals.
Hynde's most popular non-Pretenders collaboration with another artist, chartwise, was her 1985 work with UB40 on a cover of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe." The track topped the UK singles chart and went as high as No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.
On April 10, 1999, Hynde led the memorial concert "Here, There and Everywhere – A Concert for Linda" for her late close friend Linda McCartney at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Proceeds went to animal rights charities.
Artistry and influence
Hynde has a contralto vocal range. Until 1978, shortly before the advent of the Pretenders, Hynde had little idea what she sounded like. Hynde eschews formal voice training; she contends that "distinctive voices in rock are trained through years of many things: frustration, fear, loneliness, anger, insecurity, arrogance, narcissism, or just sheer perseverance – anything but a teacher."
In a 1994 interview, Madonna recalled of Hynde:
"I saw her play in Central Park [in August 1980, performing with the Pretenders]. She was amazing: the only woman I'd seen in performance where I thought, yeah, she's got balls, she's awesome! ... It gave me courage, inspiration, to see a woman with that kind of confidence in a man's world."
Personal life
Hynde, born in the United States, has long maintained dual citizenship with the UK. In the 1970s, she went back to the US briefly before returning to the UK.
In 1980, Hynde met Ray Davies (of The Kinks, of whom Hynde had always been a fan) in a New York nightclub and the two began a relationship. In 1979, The Pretenders' first single had been a cover of The Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing", which Davies wrote. The Pretenders went on to cover another of Davies's songs, "I Go to Sleep", which became a UK Top 10 hit for them in 1981. In 1982, Hynde and Davies planned to wed in Guildford, but "the guy in the register office took one look at us and suggested we come back another time." The couple never did actually marry, but had a daughter together, Natalie, in 1983. After her relationship with Davies ended, Hynde married Jim Kerr, lead singer of the band Simple Minds, in 1984. Together they had a daughter, Yasmin, in 1985. They lived in South Queensferry as well as Kilmacolm, Scotland and divorced in 1990; Hynde was married to Colombian artist and sculptor Lucho Brieva from 1997 to 2002.
Hynde follows Vaishnavism, a branch of Hinduism, and travels to India once every year to further her studies.
Hynde lives in London and has an apartment in the Northside Lofts in her hometown of Akron.
Hynde became a vegetarian in 1969 at the age of 18. She has described becoming a vegetarian as "the best thing that ever happened to me." She says that she came to regard meat-eaters with "distaste, almost contempt" but has learned to "live and associate with [them] but never respected them." Hynde is also an animal rights activist and a supporter of PETA and the animal rights group Viva!.
Hynde has publicly campaigned against the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States, and in February 2020 called on then President Donald Trump to "set him free."
Autobiography
Hynde published an autobiography, Reckless: My Life as a Pretender, on September 8, 2015.
In October 2018, Hynde released a limited edition book of her artworks, titled Adding the Blue, the name being taken from the final track on her 2014 solo album, Stockholm.
Restaurant venture
Hynde opened the VegiTerranean, a vegan restaurant, in the Northside Lofts, Akron, Ohio in November 2007. The restaurant served fusion Italian-Mediterranean food by head chef James Scot Jones. Before the restaurant's opening on September 15, 2007, Hynde performed three songs at the restaurant with Adam Seymour, a former lead guitarist of the Pretenders. The restaurant was voted among the top five vegan restaurants in the U.S. It closed on October 2, 2011, owing to the economic climate, according to Hynde.
Discography
JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys
Fidelity! (2010)