David Byrne has destroyed Talking Heads fans’ dreams of a reunion, insisting he isn’t willing to sacrifice his solo career for a get together.
The group, which also consisted of Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison, permanently disbanded in 1991, and the fourpiece has only graced the stage together once since the split, when the bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Although Byrne’s former bandmates have expressed interest in regrouping to make new music or tour, the 64-year-old is not keen on the idea.
“I feel like I have to sacrifice something, whether it’s money or name recognition or whatever in order to be able to do a little bit more of what I’d want to do,” he tells The Creative Independent. “In other words, you can’t have it all.”
David has taken on all types of interesting projects since going solo, including launching his own internet radio station, called Radio David Byrne, and he even wrote the musical Saint Joan – a modern take on the 15th century French heroine Joan of Arc.
Even though he’d rather put Talking Heads to rest for good, the musician admits he still has a slight interest in a reunion.
“For those contemplating doing a little bit of what I do, that kind of variety of things, I would say you need to be ever-vigilant,” he explains. “For example, a Talking Heads reunion might be incredibly successful for a specific generation, or maybe for many generations. It would make me a lot of money and get a lot of attention. It would also probably be quite a number of steps backwards as far as being perceived as someone who does a lot of different things.”
