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.

Kate Pierson

Categorized in : Men Hope Style Women

There's a whole split personality thing of being a farm girl and a rock and roll girl.

Kate Pierson

rock-and-roll rocks girl

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.

Kate Pierson

energy complaining fun

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.

Kate Pierson

band fun thinking

Every time you read something about Rolling Stones it always mentions their age and how long can they go on? 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.

Kate Pierson

rocks teenage thinking

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.

Kate Pierson

kid think me window

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.

Kate Pierson

listen go process sometimes

There's nobody like The B-52s. But doing stuff on my own, I can also express more personal songs.

Kate Pierson

nobody doing my-own i-can

Five people in a Volkswagen station wagon without equipment. Now we tour with six people in a van.

Kate Pierson

tour without now people

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.

Kate Pierson

great sense-of-humor humor together

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.

Kate Pierson

you marriage struggle people

The B-52s are all about inclusiveness and about celebrating your differences.

Kate Pierson

celebrating your about differences

I want to be the first rock band on Mars.

Kate Pierson

rock mars band want

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

Kate Pierson

playing doing summer two

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.

Kate Pierson

try library guitar sometimes

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.

Kate Pierson

project just me always

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.

Kate Pierson

own high-school my-own school

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.

Kate Pierson

feel you singing experience

With 'Love Shack,' once we put that chorus in, it did have more of a song structure. Even though the verses are all kind of different, the chorus was there along with 'The Love Shack' - I think that really made it a hit. Once we heard it in the studio, we played it for R.E.M., and they were like, 'Yes this is a hit.'

Kate Pierson

like think song love

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.

Kate Pierson

think women gay humor

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

Kate Pierson

other myself like people