“She played quite loud, but that didn’t worry me”: Former Pretenders guitarist remembers playing alongside Chrissie Hynde
Robbie McIntosh has recounted auditioning to be a guitarist in the Pretenders, and his experience playing alongside frontwoman Chrissie Hynde.
McIntosh joined the Pretenders in September of 1982, following the tragic death of founding member James Honeyman-Scott aged just 25 in June that year. Despite being friends with Honeyman-Scott, Mcintosh’s audition was the first time he met Chrissie Hynde.
READ MORE: Master luthier, custom modding legend and Superstrat pioneer Wayne Charvel has died aged 85
As for what the audition entailed? He explains, in a new interview with Guitar World: “We just jammed. I played for maybe 20 minutes with another guitar player, Mick Green, who I was sort of in awe of, and a bass player whose name I can’t remember. Martin [Chambers] was playing drums. Chrissie and Dave Hill, the manager, sat in front of the stage.
“A few days later, I got the call from Chrissie and she said she wanted me in the band. I didn’t have a clue that I’d passed the audition.”
What followed was his first actual rehearsal alongside Hynde. “I remember she played quite loud, but that didn’t worry me,” he recalls. “I was more concerned with how I could complement her and play off what she did. I can’t remember whether the first thing we did was 2000 Miles or Middle of the Road. I think it was Middle of the Road.”
The latter famously featured a blistering lead guitar solo, which he says he pieced together through multiple takes in the studio.
“In the studio I did maybe three or four solos, all different kinds of things, and [producer] Chris Thomas said, ‘I like that bit. We’ll keep the first half.’ I think I dropped in the really fast bit on its own, and I did that thing with the delay at the end of the solo. We worked on it for maybe half an hour.”
Reflecting on how his approach to the solo was different to what James Honeyman-Scott would have done, he continues: “It was a bit more aggressive and flashy.”
“People always ask me about the picking on that solo,” he says. “I just used my fingers, and the pick was inside my hand. Then if I needed the pick, I’d just pull it out. Chris Thomas always complimented me on the guitar playing on the album. I saw him a couple of years ago and he said the same thing. He said what a great time he had making that album. I was quite chuffed.”
The post “She played quite loud, but that didn’t worry me”: Former Pretenders guitarist remembers playing alongside Chrissie Hynde appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
