Chrissie Hynde has playfully suggested that Taylor Swift was aiming to give her career a boost by releasing a track about Cleveland, just as Swift did.
The Pretenders’ frontwoman, now 75, has showered praise on the 36-year-old pop megastar for her recent single Cleveland! from the expanded edition of her record-breaking album The Life of a Showgirl.
In a post on her blog, Hynde told her followers: “Oh yes….I was thrilled to hear Taylor Swift’s new song, Cleveland. Here’s a woman who stays at the cutting edge…. in fact, she might be the only artist in history to actually write a song about Cleveland. Although, come to think of it, I did mark Cleveland on my debut with the track Precious. Perhaps Taylor is trying to gain a leg up in her career by copying yours truly… although I strongly suspect it has more to do with her new handsome husband, a Cleveland native.”
“Either way, hats off to Taylor for marking Akron’s main rival…. Cleveland Ohio.”
“I certainly have a slew of memories from adventures in Cleveland.. it’s a heck of a town.”
The track — which was among four bonus songs on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore — is actually about her husband Travis Kelce, the 37-year-old tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and there have been a number of tunes released about the Ohio city, including by Machine Gun Kelly, Kid Cudi and Scott Weiland.
It isn’t the first time Hynde has praised Swift, as she previously lauded her business acumen, writing in 2024: “I met Taylor Swift, and she said her parents encouraged her to get into business, but that ‘Music was my passion.’ It seems she was quite adept at business as a sideline. But me, I’m no good at business because I’m not interested in it.”
“What we all share, whether we’re musicians or visual artists, is a reluctance to be told what to do.”
