• 1978-

  Chrissie HyndeVocals, guitar1978-

  Pete FarndonBass1978-1982

  James Honeyman-ScottGuitar1978-1982

  Martin ChambersDrums1978-1986, 1993-

  Robbie McIntoshGuitar1983-1987

  Malcolm FosterBass1983-1986

  T.M. StevensBass1986-1987

  Blair CunninghamDrums1986-1993

  Billy BremmerGuitar1990-1993

  Dominic MillerGuitar1990-1993

  John McKenzieBass1990-1993

  Adam SeymourGuitar1993-

  Andy HobsonBass1993-
• Chrissie Hynde has a daughter, Natalie, with Ray Davies of The Kinks. They had a common-law marriage, and tried to get married legally, but the registrar refused to issue them a marriage license because they were arguing.
• Hynde is a vegetarian and animal-rights activist. She once joked that McDonalds should be firebombed.
• Honeyman-Scott died of a heroin overdose a few days after Farndon was fired from the band for excessive drug use. Farndon died 10 months later of an overdose at age 30.
• Hynde was a freshman at Kent State University in 1970 and was protesting when the National Guard killed four students. She left and never went back to college.
  
  "I was there; I heard the shots," Hynde told The Guardian: "I was right in the middle of it and I knew one of the guys that got killed. We were protesting at Nixon invading Cambodia. Was it a defining moment for me? Well, I already knew I wanted to move on. I knew I was never going to finish school, that I was just biding my time."
• Farndon and Hynde were lovers until she kicked him out of the band in 1982.
• Hynde grew up in Akron, Ohio. She moved to London in 1973.
• Hynde left Ray Davis and married Jim Kerr, the lead singer of Simple Minds, on May 5, 1984. The couple met just months earlier when their bands were both touring in Australia; soon after their wedding, Simple Minds opened for The Pretenders when they toured America. On March 25, 1985, they had a daughter, Yasmin. They divorced in 1990.
• When Hynde first moved to England, she took work as a music journalist. Among the musicians she interviewed were Brian Eno and Suzi Quatro.
• Chrissie Hynde had several other jobs when she first arrived in England. They included selling handbags in a market and working for Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren in their punk clothing store SEX.
• Chrissie Hynde's priorities shifted as she got older. In 2003, she told the Independent: "I'm not 18 any more, and I don't live for music. It's not like I'm waitressing any more and I get home and put on an Iggy Pop album just to save my life."
• The Pretenders formed in 1978 after Dave Hill at Anchor Records heard some demos of Chrissie Hynde's music. Hynde and her bandmates struggled to come up with a name, considering The Ceilings and The Kitchens. On the day the label was printed, Hill called to ask what they had decided on. At the last minute, they came up with The Pretenders after the 1955 Platters hit "The Great Pretender."

Comments: 1

• Anonymous from Ft Worth TxI just wanted to see what james scott could do. However not to be. Funny how things work out.

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