Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It's amazing, seeing people of all different ages singing lyrics to songs we wrote when we were so young and thought we knew everything.
We're not trying to impress anybody. We're not trying to change anybody's mind. We're just out there playing, and it's something we love.
I think the thing is we really have a great time playing on stage. I think that people really feel that. So I guess we put on a good show.
We really broke down some doors for women and for musicians in general. It was just go out and form a band and don't care what anyone thinks.
We struggled for years before we got that record deal. It was tough because we were girls. People were slamming doors in our faces for years.
The worst thing about the music business is the business part of it. Business has nothing whatever to do with writing, playing and performing.
We say, 'Wow, look at Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. Their clothes were always so cool.' Maybe not Mick Jagger when he wore Spandex in the '80s.
In the year after we signed with I.R.S. we made a record, started our own tour, toured with the Police, and our record went to No. 1. It was insane.
All I can say, being young people being in a band, writing songs that we felt were great... we never felt that years later we'd be selling out shows.
We are just a rock and pop band, that's what we are. And I believe we recorded the records to feature the songs rather than it being a giant production.
While we were touring for 'Vacation,' we weren't aware that the record wasn't doing well. It was a good tour, but the album didn't go over with critics.
We don't necessarily want to do a biopic. Mostly because it's like, 'Big deal. Band gets together and gets big. Then the excesses come and they fall apart.'
We had so many obstacles. We had a lot of sexism and misogyny, there's a lot of things that were against us. But we've just pushed forward and we showed everybody.
We were the first all-girl band that wrote and played our own stuff. You know, the odds were really against us because rock has traditionally been dominated by men.
I've lived kind of a sad-happy life. It's like, every time you take a breath, it's heavy, but on the outside you're like a clown family traveling along the universe.
I had written or cowritten eight of the ten songs on 'Beauty and the Beat,' and I had written our biggest hit, 'We Got the Beat.' How was I going to top all of that?
The '80s, no matter what kind of wacky fashion or whatever else that went on in the '80s, the songs that came out of it, there was really great songwriting, in my opinion.
One of the problems we had was trying to live up to this bubbly image. All the music was supposed to be bubbly. That's what people expected from us. But that was very limiting.
When we first started out, we made a vow to ourselves we wouldn't do it anymore if it wasn't fun. Well, we keep getting back together, so it must still be fun for everyone in it.
We would go to photo sessions and it was just the most ridiculous stuff. It was like, 'Here, lick on these lollipops.' And we're like, 'What?!' It was horrifying. But we would laugh.
I'm working in theater. I did not grow up loving or even knowing anything about it, except for 'Jesus Christ Superstar' and 'Tommy.' But I love it. It's such a great collaborative thing.
In April of 1978 I was asked to join an all-girl band that was just taking shape, The Go-Go's. It was one of those moments in my life - and there were many - when I just blurted out 'Yes!'
We're definitely hanging up the touring shoes but we'll do other things. We'll do an odd gig here and there but going out and actually touring for a month or two, we're not doing that anymore.
We all came to the conclusion that we have an undeniable chemistry musically, that we might not ever find again. The mix of friction and camaraderie channels good songs, performances and laughs.
Look; being in this band, of course it would be great, yeah. But, I mean, I don't live and breathe every minute of every day thinking like, 'Oh, my God. We have to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.'
The energy between all the girls - we were hysterical together. That energy could go really bad and it could be so hateful and horrible, and then it could go really good and we'd write really good songs.
Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day always says we were influences on him, because he does melodic but distorted, like what we were doing. The Ramones were doing it. We were doing it. The Buzzcocks, all those bands.
We would rent this old van and drive anywhere we could get in 10-to-12 hours. We scraped by with little money, but there's a lot to be said for those days. We were naive, but there was no pressure and a lot of freedom.
I was fortunate enough to be living in Hollywood, CA, when the underground punk rock music scene started. It was a small group of artists, misfits and weirdos, where everyone was welcomed and encouraged to express themselves.
We were approached by Alison Ellwood about the idea of doing a documentary. At first, we were a bit nervous because we didn't want it come across as a salacious 'Behind The Music' kind of thing. Alison did such a great job. It really puts perspective on things.
Legendary photographer Annie Leibowitz persuaded us to pose in our underwear. When the magazine hit the stands we were horrified to see the caption 'Go-Go's Put Out.' Regardless, I was extremely excited to see us at every newsstand on every corner, our faces on the cover of 'Rolling Stone!'
I ran to get my cassette recorder and sang 'We Got the Beat' into the recorder to document it. I knew I had written something special. It took two minutes. I didn't labor on the lyrics. It's a simple song, which goes back to the '60s, when I had my ears glued to the radio for the Stones, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys.
A lot of it was really, really fun, but at some point, things started getting weird. We didn't allow each other to breathe. We didn't really have a sense of ourselves individually. We were very insecure... We were really threatened by the thought of 'Oh my God, what if someone goes off and does something outside the band?'
We had that horrible experience with 'Behind the Music' where they just made it all salacious. That's not about the band - that's a soap opera. If you're together with a spouse or a partner for 40 years, you're going to have arguments. But if you're with four other people, you're going have exponentially that many more things happen.