Q: How long have you been out on this leg of the Viva El Amor tour?
A: Oh, we’ve only been about a week in now. We’re actually calling it our “sustained injuries” tour. Martin Chambers, our drummer, broke two bones in his foot yesterday.

Q: Ouch.
A: And I’ve had a head injury. I’ve got 12 stitches in my head. So we’re just -- we’re waiting to see what’s next on the agenda for us on our sort of “injury status”. At the moment it seems to be pretty high.

Q:Actually, I think what happened is, you got the crappy stuff out of the way right off the bat.
A: Well, yeah, that’s how we’re looking at it anyway.

Q:When you go out on the road, do you have a standard set list every night or do you before a show figure out what you’re going to play?
A: Well, we talk about it every night. And like on a tour like this where we’re just getting started, we try to get something where we’re doing a lot of our new album, you know, because that’s obviously what’s exciting us at the moment. And naturally, we have to do some of the stuff that, you know, people request. So we try to get a set that works, incorporating some of the new stuff. And what we’ll do is, we’ll play some songs that maybe in the last couple of tours we haven’t played. I try not to make the sets too long. I don’t think any band should be on stage for three hours. For me, that’s just way too long. So, you know, we try to trim it down to keep it exciting. But you know, if we were just going to do a greatest hits package, I think that would be boring for us. So we try to throw in some stuff that we like that, you know, is relatively obscure, that weren’t singles and things.

Q:Because the last time you were in Austin, you were touring with the B52s and you didn’t have the new material out yet.
A: Well, no. And we also were only doing like a 45-minute set. So that was kind of frustrating. That’s when we had to stick to our little sort of hits package.

Q: Right. I saw the VH1 -- I guess it was the Storytellers show. That was off the wall. You were just spontaneous and going for it. Can you have that kind of freedom on stage on the road?
A: Oh, yeah. In fact, I’m probably going for it too much. I have to really try to keep a lid on it because I get too -- I get carried away sometimes. I don’t -- I didn’t watch the Storytellers thing, so I don’t know what they actually put in there. I can’t remember it very well, but -- you know, we were pretty loose.

Q: Did you purposely not watch it because you didn’t want to or you just haven’t caught up with it yet?
A: No, I never watch back anything I do.

Q: Really?
A: Uh-huh.

Q: Wow, because (the show) was good. You should see it.
A: Yeah, but I don’t like looking at stuff or I never read reviews or any kind of interviews or anything. I make a point of it because, you know, if you start doing that, you just get self-conscious. You know, I don’t want to have to start thinking about what I look like or what I sound like or what I’m saying or what I’m doing.

Q: Right. Once you -- it’s like when you realize you’re innocent, then you’re not innocent anymore.
A: Yeah. You know, I like doing this and it’s fun for me and it’s like a hobby to me. You know, I don’t want to get so that it’s -- you know, I don’t want to start rolling in the plastic surgeons, you know what I mean?

Q: How many years ago was it that you moved from the States to England? Twenty-five, something like that?
A: Yeah, 1973.

Q: And do you ever think you’d live in America again?
A: I -- possibly, I guess. I think my tendency, if I was moving one way or the other, I’d go more east rather than west.

Q: Really. Where do you make your home now? Just what country.
A: Well, I’ve lived in England all this time.

Q: Right.
A: I love Spain. I like spending time in Europe. I would like to get to India later on in the year.

Q: You know, as a big Paul McCartney fan, I would like to thank you for bringing Paul back to us after the loss of Linda. I think it was your encouragement and that great interview that you did with him that really kind of opened things up. And that had to be a good time for you as well.
A: Well, you know, it was, to tell you the truth, a pretty crap time for me, because I loved Linda and I was, like, you know, also cut up about her leaving like that. But -- and you know, as far as the thing with Paul, I talked to him and I said, “Look what are you going to do about the” -- because Linda had just finished an album. I said, “What are you going to do about the album?” And sort of bitterly said, “Well, we won’t be touring it.” And I said, “Yeah.” And I said, “Look, if you want to talk to me, then, you know, I’ll kind of do an interview and that way if you don’t like it or” -- you know, because I knew them. I thought he could at least talk to me. And then if he got upset and was crying or something, it wouldn’t be so bad. That’s why we did [the interview] that way.

Q: I’m looking at the cover of Viva El Amor. And this photograph that’s on the cover, that’s one of the last pictures that Linda took, right?
A: Yeah.

Q: And there’s a little story behind it, I think.
A: Well, we talked and she said she really wanted to do the picture. And she was very excited about it. And she’d been turning down a lot of work, but she really wanted to do this thing. So I went to her studio and we took the picture. And she said, “I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.” And we talked on the phone again about what we wanted to do and how we’d sign up posters and give it -- you know, sell them for animal rights causes and things. Anyway -- but I never saw here again. And she was dead four weeks after that. And I had a phone call then from her agent saying, “We have a package that Linda wanted delivered.” At this point, I kind of forgot about the photograph because it was like the last thing I was thinking about. So this fellow came over and he, you know, unwrapped this thing. And it was the picture. And then I realized that I -- well, then I kind of thought that she knew that she was running out of time then and that’s why she wanted to do the picture so much, to kind of leave something for me. You know, because we really were sort of comrades in this animal rights thing. And we gave each other a lot of encouragement and, you know, really liked each other and stuff.

Q: Oh, yes, they’re the Great Pretenders. And they’re at the Austin Music Hall tonight. And we’re talking with Chrissie Hynde. Chrissie, I was lucky enough, I believe in September, to be in Los Angeles. And I attended the Party of the Century for PETA.
A: That was great, wasn’t it?

Q: That was perhaps the most amazing evening I’ve ever attended in my life. And that’s not an overstatement.
A: Uh-huh. I quite agree. First of all, just being in a room with that many vegetarians is always like a really exciting feeling. And you know, it’s something that one doesn’t experience all the time, certainly not in this country. So I always find that where I get my real electric buzz as soon as I walk in the room. It’s just such a wonderful feeling. And it was -- you know, there’s a lot of very moving speeches and the tribute to Linda. You know, I thought it was -- I agree, it was one of the most amazing evenings I’ve ever had, too.

Q: I went with a friend who’s a vegan. And he said, “This is one of the first times in my life I didn’t have to walk up and ask, ‘What’s in that?’”
A: Yeah, it’s a great thing, you know. It really is. It’s -- well, unfortunately, it’s taken a lot longer than we might have hoped, but we’re still plugging away.

Q: And the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, they have a presence at your show tonight?
A: They’ll have a little stall there you can get information and different leaflets and stuff from them. They’ll be on the whole tour with us. As a matter of fact, we’re selling the -- you know, I said that Linda and I talked about signing those posters and selling them and giving the proceeds to animal charities. So we’ve had the poster made up and it’s at the PETA -- at our merchandising stall. And if anyone does buy that picture, the proceeds will go to PETA.

Q: Well, Chrissie, I want to thank you for taking time to call us tonight. And you’re always welcome here in Austin. So many people are so excited about the show tonight. And I wanted to leave with the first song on your new album, Viva El Amor. It’s called "Pop Star." Where were you coming from with this song?
A: Well, I wanted to do sort of a, you know, just a great radio-friendly song. And it was -- I know this sort of reference to “they don’t make them like they used to” it just sounded so corny that I thought I had to do it. It’s like something only an old person would say. But I think it works. And we’ll be playing that later tonight.

Q: Well, thanks for all the great music over the years. And thanks for the phone call today.
A: Sure, anytime.

Q: Chrissie Hynde, of the Pretenders. 107.1, KGSR. From Viva El Amor, this is "Pop Star." The Pretenders. (End of interview.)

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