Top 40 Kate Pierson Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

The first rock record I ever bought was ‘Great Balls of Fire.’ I was real little, and I went to Atlanta to get it.

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.

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.’

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.

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.

Everyone has that experience in a club where a doorman doesn’t pick you out.

It’s true. I’m not a spokesperson. But I can say now that transgendered people like to be heard and to be respected.

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.

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.

Cindy had two kids. We did manage to keep playing and doing summer tours with the Go-Gos, the Pretenders, and Blondie.

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.’

We’ve always been a band who wants to put our money where our mouths are. We have political songs, but we don’t like to hit people over the heads with stuff. So it’s better to do benefits and causes and talk about it later rather than always trying to put it in the song.

I like harmonizing with other people, but a lot of times, I do harmonize with myself.

I know, being a band that’s mostly gay and has women in it, I just think that there are the male icon bands: they are always – and they deserve it – but they are always touted as, ‘These guys are heavy-duty.’ I think bands, because we have a sense of humor, we are not always taken as seriously.

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 love Atlanta. I feel really at home in Atlanta. We spent a lot of time there. But Athens is like home to me.

I don’t think we were shy so much as we were terrified. Especially when we did ‘Saturday Night Live‘ on live TV. We looked really animatronic because we were scared, but it came off as being this alien sort of attitude, which served us well, because people were like, ‘Whoa, this is so weird.’

I’ve always wanted to be a musician. I love music; like, I probably sang when I was born.

I want to be the first rock band on Mars.

I think it really changes things when you’re able to get married. I mean, the Marriage Equality Act was super important. I think you cannot believe it happened as fast as it did. For a lot of gay people, it’s very surprising. You thought that this is going to be a struggle forever.

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.

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.

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.’

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.

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 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.

No beehive. Beehives – we sort of put them – well, we revive them sometimes.

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.

I hope our legacy will be enduring and that people think of us as an important band. But I think Ricky‘s guitar playing, our style of writing, the fact that we had men and women in the band and gay and straight, I think it’s an important band, and the way we wrote by jamming, we really had a different approach.

I always was songwriting in high school, writing songs while I was supposed to be listening to the teacher.

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 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 think more people feel like they’re outside of the mainstream these days – there’s more people who are doing their own thing, feeling that it’s not bad to be a weirdo and respecting other people’s differences. And all that kind of goes into the big ol’ B-52 philosophy.

‘Deadbeat Club’ means a lot to me.

I rent space on a farm for 15 dollars a month, and I have the use of about a quarter of an acre.

I’ve always wanted to do a solo project. I’ve always known I wanted to be a musician.