“One of the executives at Warner Records said, ‘David, you are your own Yoko Ono’”: David Byrne on alienating his audience, Talking Heads and a sideline in stand up comedy

David Byrne has a new album out in September, with the perplexing title of Who Is The Sky, and he’s given a very candid interview with Rolling Stone about what he’s been working on, his solo career and, of course, Talking Heads.

The 73-year-old artist spoke about his immediate post-Talking Heads career, when he introduced Latin influences into his music, much to the chagrin of his record company. “It was pretty well-received in Latin America, which was a relief. But in the United States … As one of the executives at Warner Records said, ‘David, you are your own Yoko Ono’. Which is unfair to Yoko, but I knew what he meant. He meant more like, ‘You have purposely alienated your audience.’”

He also remembered hanging out with John Cale and Lou Reed in the 1970s. It was Cale, interestingly, who hooked Talking Heads up with Brian Eno, and Reed who advised the group to slow down their songs.

“He (Reed) had some good ideas,” Byrne admits. “I remember when we met, he was eating an incredible amount of ice cream. I think he went through two of those quart containers of Häagen-Dazs ice cream in one sitting. We were like, ‘Whoa.’”

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Inevitably, the conversation moved on to Talking Heads. Fans will be disappointed to hear that no, there won’t ever be a reunion, though Byrne did say that he and the other three felt “more comfortable” with each other while they were promoting the reissue of Stop Making Sense in 2023/24.

“We were all very proud of that show and the film that Jonathan Demme did. We’re thrilled that audiences still wanted to see it. So we put aside whatever differences we have. I said, “OK, we’re not going to go there, but we’re going to help promote this thing.”

He continued: “We felt more comfortable with one another, but... I didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, yeah, let’s go out on tour again.’ Or, ‘Let’s make another record.’ Musically, I’ve gone to a very different place. And I also felt like there’s been a fair number of reunion records and tours. And some of them were probably pretty good. Not very many.

"It’s pretty much impossible to recapture where you were at that time in your life. For an audience … that was formative music for them at a particular time. They might persuade themselves that they can relive that, but you can’t.”

However, you might catch Byrne performing stand-up comedy at some point. Really. Apparently, he’s tried it. “It kind of worked,” he says. “That is one of the scariest ever, because you’re just alone with words for the most part. I don’t know if I’m ready to go there, but you never know.”