Chrissie Hynde Shares How New Bob Dylan Songs Inspired Cover Series

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, The Pretenders‘ Chrissie Hynde revealed how she was inspired by Bob Dylan‘s new songs to bring out her eight-part “Dylan Lockdown Series.”

Hynde said the folk legend’s recent song “I Contain Multitudes,” off his 39th LP, Rough and Rowdy Ways, was the major inspiration for her cover series. “[It’s] f**king devastating,” she said of the track.

Hynde said Dylan’s “Murder Most Foul,” the 17-minute elegy he recorded about John F. Kennedy, which he released in March during the time she was in an “odd frame of mind,” played a big role as well in pushing her to do the covers. “It really knocked me sideways. It’s so magnificent,” she told Rolling Stone.

“It brought back my whole childhood and my past,” she said about “Murder Most Foul.” “I remembered exactly where I was sitting in the sixth grade at my desk when the news [of JFK’s assassination] came over the Tannoy [P.A.] system.”

“Then I was thinking about Bob and how significant he’s been throughout my lifetime — and everyone’s lives,” Hynde added. “I’ve gone to see shows of his, and there are grown men, older than me, standing up, like, in tears just because he’s there.”

Hynde teamed with Pretenders guitarist James Walbourne for the series. They launched the project in late April and issued the final installment, “Tomorrow Is a Long Time,” a few days ago.

Hynde told Rolling Stone she struggled to add her own touch to some of Dylan’s lyrics, as she tried to avoid potential negativity from hardcore “Dylanologists.”

But she said reinterpreting the singer’s material has been an “interesting and fun thing to do.”

“I’m very grateful to have the time to do this, because otherwise I’d be on a tour bus right now,” she added.

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