The Pop Corporation

One of the black clouds that has hung over the legacy of Talking Heads is the friction between band members. David Byrne devotees have glossed over his treatment of Tina Weymouth for years – notably ignoring his repeated auditioning of Weymouth. Of course, the rest of the band could be just as difficult, but the conversation has been largely ignored.

Drummer Chris Frantz found out the band had broken up via a newspaper article, stating that “the band never really broke up. David just decided to leave.”

Well, with great relief, David Byrne has started to address how he was as a younger man in the spotlight, and in his own words, was a “little tyrant.”

Byrne confessed that he wasn’t exactly “pleasant” to be around during the Talking Heads’ imperial years, and these days, he’s mellowed and much more collaborative.

He told PEOPLE: “As a younger person, I was not as pleasant to be around. When I was working on some Talking Heads shows, I was more of a little tyrant. And then I learned to relax, and I also learned that collaborating with people, both sides get more if there’s a good relationship instead of me telling everybody what to do.”

On the group’s close, he said: “I think [the end] wasn’t handled well. It was kind of ugly. I have regrets on how that was handled. I don’t think I did it in the best way, but I think it was kind of inevitable that would happen anyway.”

David added that the band’s relationship is better than it was, saying: “We have a cordial relationship now. We’re sort of in touch, but we don’t hang out together.”

It’s a joy to hear that things are healing in the group, because selfishly, we’d like to see them all back together and playing live. That’d be great wouldn’t it? It’s not our fight though, but we hope that with age comes a bit of reflectiveness and perspective. Come on gang, get the band back together and take our money! All is forgiven with us grumps and everyone else didn’t really care in the first place!

Either way, stage one of the reunion comes in Toronto when the band sit on the same stage at a film festival for the redo of ‘Stop Making Sense’.