really had to work hard to get your name out there. When did you first realize that you had gone from being a group of friends playing together, to being a popular band with a following? I guess it would have to be when we played at
a club called Hurrah in New York on West 62nd Street. Ricky [Wilson] looked out the window of the club and said to me, “What are all these people doing out there?” Then we realized, the line around the block was waiting to get in the club to see our show. It was around then too that we started getting courted by record labels. All the small ones that screw you immediately... (Laughs) We of course signed a bad contract. You managed to figure out who you were as a band pretty early on and have managed to stay true to that identity. How did you first come up with the concept? Really, it’s just how we dressed in Athens. Except
A very happy thing for all of us. Music around that time period in the late ’50s, ‘60s and early ‘70s was changing pretty dramatically. There was so much happening at the time politically and in general in the U.S. How aware were you at the time about all the upheaval? Everything was changing. Even at school
[the University of Georgia in Athens] it was an interesting mix of very liberal students and very conservative students when I was just starting out. I dropped out and then luckily a couple years later
started doing the band. I’m curious about what your stand out memories are of those early years with the B-52s. Just the fact that people, our audiences, grew and
grew and grew. Back then you had to do word of mouth and people had to come and see us, because we performed for almost a year before we even put out our first single. Naturally, the Top 40 stations wouldn’t play it, we couldn’t even get the crappy local radio stations to play it. But, the college radio stations picked it up and played it. Back then you
of course for the wigs, Kate and Cindy decided to start wearing them and it built from there. My first look was based on a Halloween costume I wore, it was as a hangover. I had a wife-beater on and a seersucker suit, with a penciled in mustache and a broken cigarette in my mouth. I remember thinking, “Well, that’s a good look.” (Laughs) I love that so many of you ended up being gay. Those were different times, for sure. The late ‘70s and early ‘80s were when the early LGBT movement was really taking hold. I’m curious, how early on did you figure each other out? We knew in the beginning. We were pretty out in Athens, but when we started doing interviews and stuff like that, we didn’t really hide it. I usually said I was a “trisexual,” that I would “try” anything… (Laughs) I’d been bullied in high school for years and the last thing I wanted was to experience that again, but, people knew and especially the gay fans knew. It’s funny, the gay guys loved the girls in the band and the straight, sort of tough guys, liked us guys…It really confused me. I remember thinking, “This just doesn’t make any sense at all.” Those were different times, for sure. Then everything changed again in the ‘80s when AIDS hit, didn’t it? Yeah. People knew about us and it was cool, especially on the east coast and in New York. And then all of a sudden everybody started dropping like flies, it was such a scary time. [It was an especially devastating time for the group and particularly for Cindy Wilson, they lost originator and her brother
JULY 2017 | RAGE monthly 29
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