Jerry Harrison will reunite with Talking Heads bandmates David Byrne, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz for their first public appearance in 21 years on September 11, when they appear at a Q&A on their iconic 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense at the Toronto Film Festival. Harrison discussed working with the trio on a newly restored version of the flick in honor of its 40th anniversary with Kyle Meredith on the latest episode of his Kyle Meredith With… podcast.
The four founding members of Talking Heads haven’t appeared together since they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Spike Lee will host the live Q&A for the Jonathan Demme-directed film, which returns to theaters starting on September 22 via distributor A24. The Stop Making Sense soundtrack was reissued in deluxe format last month.
Jerry Harrison points to A24 obtaining the rights to the film as the turning point in bringing the four founding members of Talking Heads together after years of squabbling. “It started with the businesses that we own the film together, we have to work together to make a decision is A24 the right distributor for us,” Harrison recalled. “So we had to have conversations about that. This is something we did together and A24 said ‘here’s the offer and we’re going to get really behind this if you help us.’ So we need[ed] to work together to make this a success.”
The multi-instrumentalist went on to explain what it meant for the four musicians to work together. “I think it’s been somewhat of a healing experience for everybody, because it’s like, yeah, we actually can work together and do this,” Harrison said. “The conflicts that people have spent a lot of time talking about, they still can be looked up. It’s not like the feelings that made people say various things are totally gone or anything like that, but it’s sort of like, they’ve been voiced, do you need to voice things like that over and over again?”
Harrison feels the success David Byrne had with American Utopia also helped smooth the friction. “That’s given him new confidence and let begones be begones because why waste our time on these petty complaints from the past?”
Other topics hit upon were how Talking Heads were at their peak as a live band when Stop Making Sense was filmed, Harrison’s decision to stop producing other musicians and projects he has in the works.
Listen to Jerry Harrison’s appearance on Kyle Meredith With… below:
