David Byrne has crushed the hopes and dreams of Talking Heads fans hoping the seminal art rock band might reunite for some shows.
The four members reconciled at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 to support the 4K remastering of their classic 1984 concert film, Stop Making Sense, marking the first time since their 2002 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame that they had made a public appearance together.
Despite other appearances together and some activity in the band's camp, Byrne tells Rolling Stone that even though he and his bandmates enjoyed their time promoting the film, reforming the band isn't of interest to them.
Relations between members were strained following their break-up in 1991. Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison reformed in the mid-'90s as the Heads, leading Byrne to take legal action to prevent them from using the name. Frantz later criticized Byrne in his 2020 book, Remain In Love and along with Weymouth, called Byrne "Trumpian" during an interview with The Sunday Times.
Still, Byrne - who is currently promoting a new solo album, Who Is The Sky? - said all four of them felt comfortable together during their time supporting the Stop Making Sense re-release.
"[But] I didn’t feel like, 'Oh, yeah, let’s go out on tour again.' Or, 'Let’s make another record,'" he admits. "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."
Byrne says the problem lies in trying to recreate the magic of the good old days - for both the band and their fans.
"It’s pretty much impossible to recapture where you were at that time in your life," he says. "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."
Last year, word leaked that Talking Heads were reportedly offered $80 million from Live Nation to headline six-to-eight festival gigs, only to turn it down. While no one has commented on the offer, Byrne says he is fully aware of the demand.
"I totally understand it. I’m a music fan like other people," he says. "And there’s artists that stopped working, or bands that broke up, that I heard at a period in my life where music was very important. Maybe I never heard it when it was happening, I missed it. I would love to see it live now. But you realize you can’t turn the clock back. When you hear music at a certain point in your life, it means a lot. But it doesn’t mean you can go back there and make it happen again."
Read the full interview here.