Akron Native and rock star Chrissie Hynde turns 64 years old today (Mon). She has a new autobiography out called “Reckless” about her life chasing drugs and rock & roll music and her band the Pretenders.
Yesterday (Sunday) she was featured on CBS Sunday Morning and she showed a camera crew around her home town. CBS chose to highlight the city with a shot of vacant factory buildings with broken out windows.
One of the interviews was conducted on the stage of the ornate Akron Civic Theater but Hynde also cruised around town in her 1971 Pontiac T37.
In discussing her past, Hynde has sparked some controversy for blaming herself for being raped at age 21. Hynde told CBS reporter Tracey Smith that she should not have been hanging around a biker gang.
“Well, if you hung out with those guys that’s what happened; that’s the way it was.”
Smith: “It just kind of went with the territory?”
“Yeah, of course. I mean if you go and hang out with outlaws and criminals then that’s just part of it.”
Hynde said she was on drugs at the time and takes “full responsibility.”
Hynde hung out with Ohio musicians, was attending Kent State in 1970 when the National Guard shootings occurred. But she always wanted to be in a rock band and decided to get out of Akron.
“What are you going to do when there’s no downtown? I mean if you’re 17 you don’t want to move into the suburbs. What are you going to do there? I think a lot of American cities lost their youth population when their downtowns collapsed. They all baled, went to wherever.”
Smith: “London”
“Well, in my case it was London but I had a destiny to fulfill.”
Hynde’s destiny was to mov to London in the early 70’s and later form the band The Pretenders there. They are inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She is now a fan of her hometown and comes back often.