Talking Heads finally spoke to Stephen Colbert Wednesday, a week after their initial appearance on The Late Show was postponed due to the host's bout of COVID-19.
The four members -- David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz -- answered questions for over 25 minutes, broken up by commercial breaks into three segments.
In the 15-minute opening slot, Colbert took them through their earliest days as a cover band, before Tina had even joined, and prompted them to recall a show at a pizza parlor in Pittsburgh where their opening act, a fire-eater, got drunk between the evening's two sets -- though it, fortunately, did not end in him burning down the house.
They also remembered the first time they went to check out CBGB in Lower Manhattan, and what watching the Ramones on stage at the legendary club was like in the early days.
Segment two jumped to their current re-mixed and re-mastered version of Stop Making Sense, which Colbert called "perhaps the greatest concert film ever made." The film started its theatrical run late last month.
In the final, and shortest, segment, Colbert asked the "legally required" question -- whether they'd consider playing together again, and even tried to tempt them by telling them the stage was set up for them if they wanted to. Despite the anticipation and applause from the studio audience, Weymouth told Colbert, "You'll still be waiting," and the subject was dropped.
For the last question, Colbert asked Byrne what the phrase "Stop Making Sense" meant to him. Byrne explained that he was telling himself, "Don't be so rational all the time. Maybe sometimes trust your instincts, trust your feelings. Trust those kinds of things and see what happens."