Chrissie Hynde has joked that Taylor Swift was trying to “get a leg up in her career” by releasing a song about Cleveland like she did.
The Pretenders frontwoman, 75, has heaped praise on the 36-year-old pop megastar for her recent song Cleveland! from the expanded edition of her record-breaking album The Life of a Showgirl.
In a blog post, she told fans: “Oh yeah….I was thrilled to hear Taylor Swift’s new song, Cleveland. Now there’s a girl who stays on the cutting edge…. in fact, she might be the only person in history who has actually written a song about Cleveland. Although come to think of it, I did commemorate Cleveland on my first album in the song, Precious. Perhaps Taylor is trying to get a leg up in her career by emulating yours truly…… although I strongly suspect it has more to do with her new hunk of a husband, a Cleveland native.
“Either way, hats off to Taylor for commemorating Akron’s main competition…. Cleveland Ohio.
“I certainly have myriad recollections of adventures in Cleveland.. it’s a hell of a town.”
The tune – which was one of four bonus tracks on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore – is in fact about her husband Travis Kelce, the 37-year-old tight-end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and there have been a number of songs released about the Ohio city, including by Machine Gun Kelly, Kid Cudi and Scott Weiland.
It’s not the first time Chrissie has praised Taylor, as she previously hailed 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.’ Seems like she was pretty good at business as a sideline. But me, I’m no good at business because I’m not interested in it.
“What we all have in common, musicians or visual artists, is that we don’t like being told what to do.”