Pretenders- Learning to Crawl 40th Anniversary- Chrissie Hynde

The gritty resolve and sheer strength of will exhibited by the Anglo-American band The Pretenders, in order to make January 1984’s Learning to Crawl, is truly breathtaking. You see, after two highly-acclaimed full albums plus an EP, the Pretenders led by American singer/co-writer Chrissie Hynde, had fired their bass player because of drug abuse, only to have their guitarist/co-writer overdose and die two days later.

American ex-pat Chrissie Hynde pulls no punches with the life-and-death story, times two, behind one of the Eighties’ great comeback albums Learning to Crawl  in this particularly tough yet tender classic rock interview about the January 1984 Pretenders effort including “Middle of the Road”,”My City Was Gone”,”Time the Avenger”,”Back on the Chain Gang”, and “Show Me”. – Redbeard