[Update 6/5/25]: After a week of building anticipation, Talking Heads on Thursday released the first-ever music video for “Psycho Killer”. Directed by Mike Mills (C’mon C’mon, Beginners) and starring Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird, Little Women), the video arrives on the 50th anniversary of Talking Heads’ live debut, a gig opening for Ramones at CBGB in New York.
While the music video for “Psycho Killer” is undoubtedly like a pair of socks on Christmas morning when you hoped (yet again) for a reunion under the tree, removed from that context, it’s certainly an innovative interpretation of a classic song. Rather than portraying a blood-crazed maniac, Ronan is tormented by the madness of the mundane, slowly unraveling before ultimately embracing insanity.
“This video makes the song better,” Talking Heads shared in a statement. “We LOVE what this video is NOT – it’s not literal, creepy, bloody, physically violent or obvious.”
“This album literally changed what was possible in life for me,” Mills shared, “so to get to play with the subversive, uncategorizable beauty of Talking Heads, and to play with Saoirse who brought so much surprise, power, vulnerability and mischief to the party, it’s one of the best things I ever got to be a part of – still can’t believe it actually happened.” Ronan added, “To simply be mentioned in the same breath as Talking Heads is hands down one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me, let alone making a video with the singular Mike Mills to accompany one of their most iconic songs – ‘Psycho Killer’. I have grown up listening to their music, so this truly is a childhood/teenage/lifelong dream come true.”
Talking Heads — “Psycho Killer” [Official Video]
The long-dormant art rock pioneers began to stoke excitement for an unspecified June 5th announcement with a teaser clip posted to social media on Monday. A second post on Tuesday featured a clip of Ronan brushing her teeth and dancing in the mirror to David Byrne‘s recognizable “Ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya” from the bridge to “Psycho Killer”—the first song the band wrote together.
On Tuesday evening, the official Talking Heads social media accounts posted a photo of the film slate from the video’s January 8th, 2025 shoot. The caption confirmed, “To mark the 50th Anniversary of the band’s first show at CBGB’s, the first official music video for ‘Psycho Killer,’ directed by Mike Mills & starring Saoirse Ronan, will be released. Out June 5th, 2025.”
Related: Here’s What We Know About The New David Byrne Album So Far [Photos/Videos/Audio]
While many fans had hoped for some sort of live performance by Talking Heads to mark the milestone anniversary, the release of a new video falls in line with the group’s recent activity.
Talking Heads last performed together live in 1984 and officially disbanded in 1991. All four co-founding members—David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, and Chris Frantz—reunited for the first time in over 20 years in 2023 at a 40th anniversary event for their beloved concert film Stop Making Sense. That Q&A with director Spike Lee ignited a wave of press appearances, though all four members maintained throughout the junket that they are not getting back together. A report from Billboard even stated that the band turned down an $80 million offer for a reunion tour from Live Nation.
Since then, Talking Heads have existed as a catalog band. Following the remastered 4K release of Stop Making Sense, the band issued an extensive “super deluxe” reissue of their 1977 debut LP, Talking Heads: 77, last fall featuring a previously unreleased live recording from CBGB in ’77. This past Record Store Day in April, the band issued Live on Tour, a live album recorded in Cleveland on December 18th, 1978. All four members also reunited for their own Jeopardy! category last fall.
Watch the various teaser clips for the Mike Mills-directed Talking Heads 50th-anniversary “Psycho Killer” music video below. Check back here tomorrow to watch the full thing.
If this week’s latest round of reunion speculation left you jonesing for a show, you can always catch Jerry Harrison and longtime Talking Heads guitarist Adrian Belew‘s ongoing Remain In Light tour featuring Cool Cool Cool, which is currently wrapping up a European leg ahead of a stretch of U.S. dates in July. Find a full list of upcoming dates here.
In other TH-adjacent news, David Byrne has been dropping hints about the coming arrival of a new solo project. On June 10th, he’ll release a new song, “Everybody Laughs”. The caption of an official preview clip posted on YouTube lists the song as a collaboration between Byrne and Ghost Train Orchestra, the New York City-based jazz and chamber ensemble led by Brian Carpenter.
[Note: A previous version of this article titled “Talking Heads Tease Announcement On Band’s 50th Anniversary” was originally published 6/2/25.]
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