Chrissie Hynde is the latest female artist to call out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Following Courtney Love’s tweet and op-ed in The Guardian blasting the lack of female representation in the Hall of Fame, Hynde shared her thoughts — and let’s just say she’s not a fan.
“If anyone wants my position in the rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame they are welcome to it,” Hynde, who was inducted in 2005 with The Pretenders, writes on Facebook. “I don’t even wanna be associated with it. It’s just more establishment backslapping. I got in a band so I didn’t have to be part of all that.”
Hynde says when she found out The Pretenders were to be inducted she was living in Rio and “my heart sank because I knew I’d have to go back for it as it would be too much of a kick in the teeth to my parents if I didn’t. I’d upset them enough by then, so it was one of those things that would bail me out from years of disappointing them. (like moving out of the USA and being arrested at PETA protests and my general personality).”
Neil Young was on hand to induct The Pretenders at the annual gala and even performed with them. Hynde says that was the only good thing about the evening. “The whole thing was, and is, total bollocks,” she offers. “It’s absolutely nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll and anyone who thinks it is is a fool.”
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