Taking Heads’ four members, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison, appeared together Wednesday, October 25, on CBS’ The Late Show to promote the 40th anniversary screenings of their beloved 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense.
The bandmates have taken part in a series of interviews and screening events in recent months, but they have not actually performed together since they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame back in 1999. Late Show host Stephen Colbert, who made clear during the interview that he’d been a massive Talking Heads fan for decades, took the opportunity to press Byrne and company if they would consider performing as a unit again.
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“I legally have to ask if there’s any possibility of protecting your legacy by playing together again,” Colbert said, pointing out that there were “guitars and keyboards and drums” on the stage that the bandmembers could use right then and there.
“You’ve got to admit, it would be legendary right now if you got up there and played a song,” Colbert added as the audience screamed and applauded. “It would be epic!”
Unfortunately, his invitation was met with awkward silence from the bandmates, until Weymouth commented to the host, “You’ll be still waiting.”
The subject then turned back to Stop Making Sense.
Just prior to Colbert dropping the reunion question on the band, he pointed out that before the members got together to promote the restored movie, there had been “some friction in the band” in recent decades, then asked, “Is that all water under the bridge, or do you still have to wear galoshes around each other?”
Frantz then fielded the question.
“I think any band that’s been together a long time has had twists and turns and ups and downs. We’ve all said things and we’ve all maybe done things that the others didn’t approve of,” the drummer noted. “But, I think we love each other and we’ve made such great music together. And this movie… I mean, damn, this movie is so good that we all agree, we’ve to get together and protect out legacy, which is so great!”
Also during the interview, Frantz pointed out that Talking Heads had actually recorded and mixed many of their songs in a studio that had been located on the upper floors of the very building they were in, which was also the former home of The Ed Sullivan Show.
“The Stones were here, The Beatles were here… So were we,” Frantz quipped.
You can check out Colbert’s full three-segment interview with Talking Heads on The Late Show’s YouTube channel.
Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for BAM