“You don’t ever talk”: The troubled relationship of Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde
When you’re a successful pop star, the odds of you hanging out with other successful musicians or people in the public eye are significantly higher than if you have a regular nine-to-five job. You might think that’s unfortunate for you and your designs of rubbing shoulders with the biggest names, but it’s true – sorry.
It becomes even more of a possibility that you’ll develop a romantic connection with someone else from this industry, much like it would be if you found love working in finance. On paper, while it doesn’t necessarily seem like a match made in heaven, the fact that Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde had a brief relationship shouldn’t be all that surprising.
The duo connected over many things, not least their musical talents and shared passion for songwriting, but also their mutual advocacy for animal rights. Davies and Hynde remained in a relationship for four years at the start of the 1980s, and even had a daughter, Natalie, together. However, soon after her birth, the relationship soured significantly, and they would end up going their separate ways.
Evidently, things weren’t to be, and it would even develop into a feud that lasted multiple decades, which only goes to highlight the level of toxicity that had brewed between the two.
But just how bad were things, and just how much does Davies himself resent the fact that there was ever a relationship? If you were to ask guitarist Steve Bolton about his experience of working alongside Davies, he’d inform you that it was something of an “unwritten law to not mention her name,” something he found out the hard way.
When it came to recording a solo album in 2006, 22 years after he and Hynde had separated, Davies called upon Bolton to assist him with making what would become Other People’s Lives, and while he was quick to accept the offer of work, he was also made fully aware of how taxing working with Davies could be. “They warned me to be careful with Ray as he was a really weird guy and didn’t suffer fools lightly,” Bolton later confessed to Guitar Player.
Weirdness aside, it transpired that Bolton and Davies got on well from the outset, and after spending time with him in the studio, he started to develop something of a confidence around him, which led him to let something slip that he was made to regret.
“He was really sweet, and we got on like a house on fire,” Bolton continued. “But with that said, there are certain things with Ray Davies you don’t ever talk about. And one of them is Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders.” After one recording session, making overdubs, Bolton was daft enough to choose to compare a song that they’d made together to something that The Pretenders would have made, which was met with an ice-cold reception.
While Bolton and Davies were instantly able to patch things up, the same can’t necessarily be said of the two former partners. Despite not being able to be in the same room as one another, they featured on the same song in 2009, virtually duetting for Davies’ ‘Postcards From London’. While their daughter had arranged for the collaboration to happen, Davies wisely opted to leave the room while Hynde did her thing, making for an awkward encounter that partially seemed to brush all previous grievances under the rug.
