CHRISSIE HYNDE HAS always been clear-eyed about her life’s path. “Someone once asked, ‘What would you be doing if you weren’t in a band?,’” the 68-year-old Pretenders leader tells Guitar Player. “And the answer is, ‘I’d be in a band.’”

She laughs. “That sort of sums that up, you know?”

Indeed it does. And it also makes the newest release from the Pretenders, Hate for Sale (BMG), all the more special. Not only is it a rocking, raucous record, it’s also Hynde’s first offering with her full touring band, which includes guitarist James Walbourne, bassist Nick Wilkinson and returning original drummer Martin Chambers.

“I’ve done what I’ve done over the years,” Hynde says, referring to her two solo albums, 2014’s Stockholm and 2019’s Valve Bone Woe, as well as the 2016 Pretenders album, Alone, recorded with Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach and a host of Nashville session players and guests. “But it is only fair to say that all this time I wanted to play with this touring band that I love. In fact, I shouldn’t even call it a touring band — this is the Pretenders. And we really seemed to knock it out of the ballpark.”

You can say that again. is classic Pretenders, roaring out of the gate, following a raggedy false start, with the garage-punk title