David Byrne rules out Talking Heads reunion: “You can’t turn the clock back”
David Byrne has again ruled out the chances of Talking Heads reuniting.
Byrne is gearing up to share his new album, Who Is The Sky?, which will be released on September 5th through Matador Records. It marks his first full-length effort since American Utopia in 2018.
In the period between Byrne’s last album in 2018 and his new release, Talking Heads came together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their landmark concert film, Stop Making Sense. The promotional run saw the band appear together at premieres and also on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which fuelled reunion speculation.
Now, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Byrne said of spending extensive time with his former bandmates again: “We felt more comfortable with one another, but I’m just going to anticipate your next questions. I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, yeah, let’s go out on tour again.’ Or, ‘Let’s make another record.'”
The art-pop pioneer explained his refusal by adding, “Musically, I’ve gone to a very different place.” He also noted, “I also felt like there’s been a fair number of reunion records and tours. And some of them were probably pretty good.”
Although it would be a lucrative payday, Byrne then claimed it’s “pretty much impossible to recapture where you were at that time in your life”, which is of more importance to him as an artist.
Byrne does comprehend the desire from fans to see Talking Heads reunite, noting, “I totally understand it. I’m a music fan like other people. And there’s artists that stopped working, or bands that broke up, that I heard at a period in my life where music was very important. Maybe I never heard it when it was happening, I missed it. I would love to see it live now.”
However, he’s a firm believer that Talking Heads should remain in the past, adding, “But you realize you can’t turn the clock back. When you hear music at a certain point in your life, it means a lot. But it doesn’t mean you can go back there and make it happen again.”
Last year, it was reported that Talking Heads rejected the opportunity to reunite for a series of festivals and headline shows despite it being claimed they would have been paid $80 million.
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