The Observer 

Send us your questions for Chrissie Hynde

Got something to ask the Pretenders frontwoman? Send it our way and we’ll put it to her
  
  

Chrissie Hynde ObsNewReview onlu
Chrissie Hynde Photograph: Ki Price

One of the biggest stars of this year’s Glastonbury was a 71-year-old, vest-wearing rock’n’roller – Chrissie Hynde, the singer, guitarist and Pretenders frontwoman, who got Johnny Marr, Dave Grohl and a non-performing Paul McCartney to join her on stage.

Forty-three years into a career that ignited with the first No 1 of the 1980s, Brass In Pocket, Hynde remains remarkably unfazed by the years. She also has a bestselling memoir (Reckless) behind her, three solo albums taking in cover versions and jazz, a book of her paintings and decades of animal rights activism and veganism.

Born in Akron, Ohio, in 1951, and a witness to the Kent State massacre in 1970 when she was a university student, she moved to London half a century ago, landing smack-bang in the burgeoning counterculture. She worked at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s punk boutique Sex, wrote for NME, and scrabbled around in bands (with the likes of the Clash’s Mick Jones and Visage’s Steve Strange) before forming her own in 1978.

The Pretenders’ glittering catalogue of hits spans pop bangers (Don’t Get Me Wrong, Back on the Chain Gang) and unforgettable ballads (I’ll Stand by You, 2000 Miles), and their 12th album, Relentless, is due in September (a single with Jonny Greenwood, I Think About You Daily, is out now).

An ex-partner of Jim Kerr and Ray Davies, Hynde is also outspoken on the subjects of feminism and fame – so let your questions roam. Are women better suited to rock’n’roll? Is veganism the secret of that incredible voice?

To submit a question, please fill in the form below, email review@observer.co.uk or tweet @ObsNewReview by 3pm Monday 24 July

  • The Pretenders’ new studio album, Relentless, is released via Parlophone on 15 September.

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