Rocker Chrissie Hynde: It’s the company you keep, so her assault by bikers is ‘the way it was’

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Legendary rocker Chrissie Hynde was with the band. And not just as the sultry-voiced singer with the Pretenders, which won popularity decades ago with hits such as “Brass in Pocket” and “Ohio.”

Early in her life, Hynde fell in with a band of outlaw bikers. She wound up being beaten, robbed and raped, she says in an interview to air on this week’s “Sunday Morning” on CBS.

Hynde, 63, is philosophical about the assault.

“If you hung out with those guys, that’s what happened. That’s the way it was,” she says.

Hynde says she didn’t fear for her life, though she should have.

“We were just trying to score pot and see bands,” she explains. “And if motorcycles were part of it, then even better.”

But things could easily get out of hand.

“With a lot of these guys, once you get involved with them, you don’t really get out,” she says. “Especially if you’re a woman — you become sort of property.”

Hynde writes about the attack in her new memoir, “Reckless: My Life as a Pretender.”

“Sunday Morning With Charles Osgood” airs Sunday at 9 a.m. EDT.

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Online:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sunday-morning/