Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I want to be the first rock band on Mars.
I was doing space girl outfits way before Katy Perry or Gaga!
'Love Shack' is such an eternal kind of song; at karaoke, people do it.
People are making their own records in their houses. It's an exciting time.
No beehive. Beehives - we sort of put them - well, we revive them sometimes.
The B-52s are all about inclusiveness and about celebrating your differences.
We would go on 'The Voice,' and we'd get kicked off of the first episode, probably.
I've always wanted to do a solo project. I've always known I wanted to be a musician.
I like harmonizing with other people, but a lot of times, I do harmonize with myself.
There's a whole split personality thing of being a farm girl and a rock and roll girl.
There's this whole split personality thing of being a farm girl and a rock and roll girl.
I've always wanted to be a musician. I love music; like, I probably sang when I was born.
I rent space on a farm for 15 dollars a month, and I have the use of about a quarter of an acre.
Five people in a Volkswagen station wagon without equipment. Now we tour with six people in a van.
There was just one time when the band took a big break, and I did that Nina project in Japan in 1999.
We do benefits for various groups. But the main reason to be B-52's is to have fun and party and go nuts.
I always was songwriting in high school, writing songs while I was supposed to be listening to the teacher.
I wrote a whole solo album and recorded some of it, even did a little tour with Sara Lee and Gail Ann Dorsey.
I love Atlanta. I feel really at home in Atlanta. We spent a lot of time there. But Athens is like home to me.
The first rock record I ever bought was 'Great Balls of Fire.' I was real little, and I went to Atlanta to get it.
It's true. I'm not a spokesperson. But I can say now that transgendered people like to be heard and to be respected.
Cindy had two kids. We did manage to keep playing and doing summer tours with the Go-Gos, the Pretenders, and Blondie.
I used to stick my head out the window when I was a kid and sing at the top of my lungs and think no one could hear me.
There's a very collaborative, collective attitude. That's a very female principle. We try to nurture that aspect of the band.
I used to have a protest folk band in high school, and I wrote all my own songs. Then, in the B-52s, we would write collectively.
When we first played Max's, people thought Cindy and I were drag queens - we wore these gigantic wigs that sort of his our faces.
Sometimes we'd just play acoustic guitar and try out the parts and make a library. We'd use a double cassette player and make little edits.
The whole reason to make a solo album is to express what you can't express with the B-52s. The B's are so much about fun and partying and dancing.
We've known Cyndi Lauper since she was in 'Blue Angel'; we did a TV show with her back in '79 or '80. We don't have any competition; we're complementary.
I would have loved to have been a broadcast journalist. I'd even love to be the weather girl. I have to watch the weather every night; I'm just obsessed.
I think being in a place where there is nothing happening is very inspiring because you have to make your own fun, you are not reliant on imitating any other bands.
It takes incredible fortitude to keep on the road, even though it's fun and it's rewarding and you can't complain, it's just a great life, but it takes a lot of energy.
We started in 1976, jamming, and we played our first show on Valentine's Day 1977, so we can mark 40 from there, or we can mark 40 from 1979 when we did our first record.
I'm always saying in the studio, 'My vocals are too loud!' or 'My vocals have too much effect on them!' I like some of it, but I'm not a fan of loading effects onto my voice.
Every time I go to Athens, it's not just a trip down memory lane; there's some surprise. I always meet somebody new, or some crazy party happens, or there's some amazing event.
In the B-52s, each of us has our own wacky sensibility, which, when we come together, it's like the four-headed monster. And it's great because we have the same sense of humor.
It takes incredible fortitude to keep on the road, even though it's fun and it's rewarding and you can't complain - it's just a great life - but, you know, it takes a lot of energy.
The Beatles had a huge impact on me. I did 'Strawberry Fields Forever', and we worked it out in an open tuning. That's such a beautiful song, and I think I did it in a different way.
When I was little, I used to think, 'That's the way people in the future are gonna dress! They'll be wearing space suits, and it will be all silver, all the time. It's gonna glitter.'
One of my favorite lyrics is 'Clams on the half-shell and roller skate, roller skate.' So they can be just really party-inspiring lyrics or just something brilliant like 'Tutti Frutti.'
I think there are certain genres of music where people are allowed to go on, but there is something about rock and roll, I guess because it originally started out to be a teenage rebellion.
We have quite a few political songs: 'Channel Z,' let's 'Keep This Party Going' on. Our lyrics aren't too hit-you-over-the-head, but they have political undertones. We're active politically.
We have always appealed to people outside of the mainstream. Constantly, we get people coming up to us and saying, 'I was just the freakiest one in high school. I was the only one who kept playing the B-52's.'
I've always wanted to do a solo record, and in 1999, I went over to Japan and did a project called NiNa, where I co-wrote with Yuki from Judy and Mary. It just sort of unleashed this realization in me that I could write.
I had really long hair, and we had this hairdresser, Laverne, that was in Athens. And she did my hair up really big. And she said, 'Honey, when you hang your head over the bed and make love, that hair is not going to move.'
Back in high school, I had this folk protest band, and I used to write all the time. And then, when I got in The B-52s, we began to write collectively, collaboratively - most all of our songs are written by jamming together.
All our friends - so many friends are gay or lesbian and transgender. We're just in that world. We all went through the devastating time of the AIDS crisis, and I think that galvanized us to be more activists - AIDS activists.
The B-52s, you know, our songs are about volcanoes or lobsters. Cindy and I sing them like our lives depend on them. I feel very emotional when I'm singing 'Rock Lobster,' but I've wanted to sing more about my personal experience.
The inspiration for our vocal harmonies was sort of Appalachian. It's sort of at weird intervals, and it almost has an Appalachian kind of feel to it. The harmonies were really spontaneous. And the way we jammed, we would just get into a trance.
Usually, when we write in The B-52s, it's quite a collaborative process. We really take hours - and sometimes days - jamming, and then we listen and listen to them and go, 'Oh, let's use this part, and then this part.' It's really like a collage.