David Byrne says he was “self-cancelled” for historic blackface footage
David Byrne has reflected upon issuing a public statement after old footage emerged of him in blackface for a Talking Heads promotional video.
In 1984, Byrne adopted a series of characters as part of a skit for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, which saw him use blackface.
Decades later, in 2020, Byrne issued a public apology after the footage circulated online, sharing, “I’d just about forgotten about this skit and I’m grateful that it has been brought to my attention.”
His apology continued, “To watch myself in the various characters, including black and brown face, I acknowledge it was a major mistake in judgement that showed a lack of real understanding. It’s like looking in a mirror and seeing someone else- you’re not, or were not, the person you thought you were.”
Now, in a new episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, Byrne looked back on the original video and his decision to own up to the mistake before the video had even been widely seen.
He told the host, “It was not done as a parody or caricature or anything like, but that was one of the characters. And I realised, ‘oh god, I would never do that now, that was a long time ago.’ This is a clip that’s available online. It’s probably on YouTube. It’s probably available in other places as well. So I thought, this is not hidden. This is not something that’s on some obscure piece of videotape or whatever. It’s right there.”
Byrne added, “So I said, okay and I made an announcement and said, I did this. Here it is. I did this. I would never do this now, but here it is.”
The former Talking Heads singer also revealed that he had a conversation with Spike Lee, who directed the 2020 version of his Broadway show American Utopia, before addressing the general public.
The ‘Psycho Killer’ singer continued, “I self-cancelled. And I called up Spike Lee and said, I did this. ‘I just want you to want you to know that I’m going to announce that I did this’. And he said, ‘David, I know you people know you. Don’t worry about it.'”
As much as Lee didn’t care about the footage, Byrne claims, “But at the same time, there were a few organisations that did cancel me…there was a speaking engagement that said we can’t have you talk. That was a few years ago. “
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Byrne was confirmed as the headliner of Latitude Festival next July, which is a UK exclusive booking for the Suffolk event. He will also tour the UK in March.
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