Yesterday, David Byrne celebrated the release of American Utopia, his first solo album in more than a decade. To help mark the occasion, the former Talking Heads frontman stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for a chat and a performance.
Byrne spoke with Colbert about his musical about the infamously extravagant former Filipino First Lady Imelda Marcos, and the dictatorial family that ran the country at that time. On that note, he asked Byrne if there was anyone in the Trump administration that he would want to write a musical about. As Byrne explains:
Oh, I was thinking about this earlier. I was thinking about Jared Kushner. … I was just thinking If I had to write from his point of view–obviously, you have to write from his point of to get the audience to buy into what he’s feeling. And obviously, he has the face of stone. You don’t see any feeling, just the stare. But you know something’s going on in there. And I think it’s, his thing is, “I can’t let what happened to my Daddy happen to me.” … Daddy went to jail for doing some bad things.
Jared, it’s like a Greek tragedy. Everything that Jared does takes him closer to…what happened to Daddy! And he can’t stop it, it’s almost like “everything I do is like this magnet pulling me toward my fate.” … But Jared has a face of stone, so the acting part must be hard, I think.
The pair also went on to speak about Byrnes ongoing endeavor to cataloging “reasons to be cheerful under Trump.” Byrne goes on to explain this “quite serious” endeavor, including a story about a Republican mayor in Texas oil country who put party politics aside for the greater good.
Finally, Colbert told a story about how he skipped Talking Heads’ now-legendary “Stop Making Sense” tour when he was in college to be a responsible student and write a paper that was due the next day. He asked Byrne, “Did I make the right choice?” Byrne danced around his answer, asking what Colbert’s friends said when he decided to skip it and eventually siding with the friends’ point of view…because, let’s face it, you done messed up, Steve.
David Byrne Interview
[Video: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]
Later in the show, Byrne took the stage for an incredible, beautifully choreographed performance of “Everybody’s Coming To My House” with an identically-dressed ensemble that moved throughout the theatre during the performance–often around Colbert himself, who played along with amusement. You can watch David Byrne’s The Late Show performance below:
David Byrne – “Everybody’s Coming To My House”
[Video: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]
You can catch David Byrne’s American Utopia tour in a city near you this year. For a full list of upcoming shows, head to Byrne’s website.