When my friends Barbie Lipp and Tom Koken took me to CBGB's in May 1978 to see this new band called The B-52's, my life changed as did a lot of other people's lives change because of this band from Athens, Georgia.

I have had a friendship with each member of the band for the past 10 years, and I am still proud to call myself a fan.

The B-52's have a new record Cosmic Thing (Warners/Reprise) and it is bound to be heard on every beach blanket party this summer. I got together with Keith, Kate, Fred and Cindy and talked about old times and what's to come.

Tom Rubnitz: How did the name The B-52's come about?

Keith Strickland: It was right at the very beginning, when I had a dream - it sounds so corny - but in the dream, there was this lounge setting like a Holiday Inn, and there was this woman playing the organ and she had a bouffant, of course. There were also several people playing trombone, and behind the musicians was a small movie screen projecting a big airplane flying, and I remember someone saying, "Oh, there's the B-52's."

TR: So there was some connection to the airplane?

KS: A little bit, yeah. But the bouffant hairdo got it's name from the airplane...so the connection is there but we've always been emphasizing the hairdo.

TR: When the band started, was there a conscious move to have the girls wear bouffant hairdos?

KS: When the band started, we would go out to clubs, to Athens' only disco and to parties, and we'd dress up. I don't really recall any strict bouffants at that time . Anyway, I suggested since we're going to call ourselves The B-52's someone in the band should wear a bouffant. It might be good to clarify that; we were already dressing up and wearing wigs anyway. It seemed to fit right in. Then one day it just so happened that we went by this women's clothing store called The Diana Shop, and they had these two mannequins in the window and we just could not believe the two mannequins had these two big, white bubble bouffants and remember, this was in the mid-'70s, way after bouffants were popular. The two mannequins had these cotton white bubble bouffant things on with matching furry white purses with gold chains. Kate and Cindy immediately went out and got them for our very first performance.

TR: Did they wear the matching purses too?

KS: Actually, I think they wore the pocketbooks as wigs. They just combed then out and wore them on their heads and made hairdos out of them. I don't know who did the window, some genius.

TR: On Cosmic Thing you worked with two different producers, Nile Rodgers and Don Was. Was there a difference?

KS: I think there was just a difference in their personalities and how their personalities affected us. As far as their affect on the songs, we never deviated too far from what we originally planned to do. Although Don was instrumental in getting us to do "Love Shack," we had done so many versions of it and we were sort of at a loss about what to do with it. Don heard what we did and encouraged us to record it.

TR: People are so surprised that you are playing guitar even though you've always played guitar and drums. Do you miss playing the drums?

KS: Not really, because the way I play guitar is so percussive. It's sort of like playing drums.

TR: That's the way Ricky Wilson played the guitar when he was with the band. (He died in 1986).

KS: Yeah, he did. That's primarily why I wanted to play guitar. So I could keep some continuity with Ricky's style; rhythmic with open tunings. Very few people do open tunings. It's so left-field... such a different way of approaching the guitar.

TR: What is open tuning?

KS: It's when you tune the strings to the chord, not the standard guitar tuning where you can make a G or a D chord. With open tuning you can't do that; the whole configuration would be completely different.

TR: That's why Ricky's guitar sound was such an important part of your songs; it was all based on those open tunings.

KS: Since Ricky and I worked together writing the songs. I played with open tunings as well.

TR: The whole album seems very close to your roots in the South.

KS: It's funny, 'cause when we were writing each song we kept realizing after we'd finished, "This has a rural Southern feeling to it too." We weren't making a conscious effort to do it but it was just coming out. When I sequenced the album, putting the tracks in order, I sort of saw the album as having this journey. "Cosmic Thing" the first track, is sort of like the title track, the theme for this movie, and then it starts with "Dry Country" which sets this rural scene . There's nothing to do, you sort of get this real lazy Southern atmosphere. "Dead Beat Club" is more about what they're doing - crashing parties, hanging out. "Love Shack" is more a continuation of that, and also, I kind of equate it with the time when we started playing in Athens at people's houses. "June Bug" is more of the Southern kind of playin' in the river or sort of the love of nature kind of thing. And then on side two, "Roam" starts to take a departure, sort of suggesting that "Roam if you want to, around the world." It makes me think about when we left Georgia and went on. "Bushfire" is a mythological journey into an ominous forest. In "Channel Z", we come out from the bushfire and get very global, expressing where we're at now. We believe we can make a difference if everybody makes an effort. "Topaz" is a vision for a possible future city and then the album ends with "Follow Your Bliss", which is something Joseph Campbell used to tell his students. So I see it as this mythic journey from our early days to now.

Tom Rubnitz: You've said that one reason why the band formed was because, in Athens, Georgia in the mid-70's, you had to create your own entertainment. Thrift store shopping was another form of entertainment for a lot of people all over the country.

Kate Pierson: There was this certain synchronicity happening. I think a lot of people were drawn to thrift shopping, and we were striking a collective chord.

TR: You also gave a lot of people hope, that just didn't fit in with the mainstream norm.

KP: We always felt like outsiders - superfreaks. In Athens, even though the university made the town so much more liberal than any other town around Georgia with a lot of creativity and culture, it was also predominantly dominated by the sororities and fraternities. There was definitely something to go against. So I think the band filled "the black hole" with people everywhere who also felt like outsiders.

TR: Like Aaron Fricke, who wrote "Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story About Growing Up Gay," your music was the catalyst for a turning point to his life.

KP: It's amazing. We never realized this until we started getting letters from teens saying, "You helped me get through high school."

TR: Critics have allways called you a pop art, camp band.

KP: Oh, please . . .

TR: Why don't they just say you're fun!

KP: Well, now we'd definitely be in the postmodern category.

TR: Postmodern? That's a hideous type of architecture, isn't it?

KP: It's a category now in Billboard and on MTV. It refers to an eclectic style in our music. It was easy to identify Nino Rota and Peter Gunn. We didn't try to disguise the fact that we borrowed elements, but we did make a totally unique sound out of it.

TR: What about the critics calling it kitsch?

KR: You can't deny there's some element of camp, but I always thought we had a very romantic element. The kooky-zany label gets on my nerves. We weren't trying to be cutesy. The free association, stream of consciousness Iyrics were never really thought of being kitschy although we did travel through the Museum of Junk Culture. That was one aspect, along with the humor.

TR: Do you feel pressured by the record company to have a hit record?

KP: No, especially on this record we said forget about hit records, let's just do what we want to do and really have fun. We said that if we're going to keep doing this, it's more important for us now to do what we feel is artistically right and further explore our weird song structures.

TR: The harmonizing between you and Cindy is extraordinary on this new record, so sophisticated.

KP: Why, Thaaaank you, Tommy. We worked much more collectively. And even though it takes a really long time, we were able to pick out parts that we loved from the jam sessions. It allows for unusual elements when everyone's in on it.

TR: That's something about The B-52's that's been a good thing and also sometimes must be a problem - that there's no leader, it's a real democracy.

KP: Yes, it can make us like a wild herd of animals running in every direction. It does take a really long time to get anything done without a leader, but I do think it makes us much more, un...unpredictable.

TR: You're famous for your lackadaisical attitude by some crltlcs, but I admire you all living outside of the rock'n'roll arena.

KP: When I think about people who are really big stars, it's sad to me that they're so trapped. It's so claustrophobic, being someone who is completely work-oriented. We do work hard and we could've gotten a lot more done if we were obsessed with being stars, but it's not the most important thing to us.

TR: Your music has been important to so many people.

KP: We've always wanted to emphasize the positive in our music. There's no sense in just being overwhelmed with negative things that are happening; then you feel powerless. We felt, through our music, that if we could make people feel better and feel more positive about things, then there's more of a chance for people to do something about their own situation or become socially active. We were overly wary of being preachy in the early albums. Even though we all felt really strong about politics, we weren't always in agreement and we didn't want to hit people over the head. Now we're all in agreement about what we want to support.

TR: What are some of your concerns?

KP: A few years ago, we did a benefit for the Audubon Society in Texas, and the earthquake victims in Italy. We're currently involved in projects with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), ecological issues, saving the rain forest, and filming a commercial for AMFAR.

TR: Times have changed and people need to organize.

KP: People are mobilizing more now because it's a desperate situation. It's amazing how many entertainment people are all on this environmental roll, which is great! There's so much that needs to be done. The situation is so urgent. We should have pushed the panic button years ago, but we didn't, so we'll just have to push it now.

TR: Your words are very visual. Are you interested in your music videos being associated with specific images?

KP: Our first video from Cosmic Thing is going to be "Channel Z". We do have strong feelings about what images are associated with us. The band wants to create a strong positive image.

TR: But the song seems to be talking about a world that's rotting, politically and ecologically.

KP: Yeah, but other Iyrics in the song emphasize that things are going to change, and that we have the possibility to do it ourselves. We also want to emphasize that part of the song. We feel like we're on the brink of change.

TR: Do you plan to tour?

KP: We're going to tour North America and I'm sure Europe. Then we're talking about signing a foreign record deal which would include, for the first time, new territories like Africa parts of South America, maybe China and the Soviet Union, which I'd love love love to do!

TR: Really?

KP: I would love to travel.

TR: You would?

KP: Except by plane.

TR: Then how would you get there?

KP: By "trism" . . . Nobody ever understood that song on Whammyl - ''trism" - was a vehicle of travel.

Tom Rubnitz: Is each individual responsible for the Iyrics they sing?

Fred Schneider: Now pretty much they are.

TR: It wasn't always that way?

FS: I wrote Iyrics to "Give Me Back My Man", "Rock Lobster", "Planet Claire" and a few other early songs but now we just work off each other. Keith wrote some Iyrics on "Topaz" even though he doesn't sing them.

TR: On the song "Cosmic Thing", what does it mean when you say, "Don't let it rest on the president's desk?" Does it have political connotations?

FS: Yeah, of course, definitely. We can't just sit there and be satisfied with the way things are. Gotta' shake out the dust and get it going, especially with this administration, and the last one. You wonder what's going on in this country. The band's always been political, but not always through our music.

TR: Kate told me you're the band historian. Where was the band's first performance?

FS: At Julia and Gray's house, which was across from Dunkin' Donuts, in Athens. That was Valentine's Day 1977. The band was set up in their hallway and everybody was in the living room.

TR: What songs did you have together then?

FS: We played six songs that were on the first album, "Rock Lobster", "Lava" . . .

TR: And then you played In New York?

FS: Well, then we played Teresa Randolph's party, and then, The Fans, a band from Atlanta, were going up to play in New York, so we went along with them and played Max's Kansas City on a Monday night in December 1977. It was our first gig playing without backing tapes. Before that, all the parties we played had extra musical instruments on tape that Keith and Ricky would play. So, anyway, after we played al Max's, we thought, "Well, we did it, we played where Patti Smith has played. Now we can go home." And then Danny Beard (a friend and head of DB Records) said maybe we should ask if they want us to come back. And they said, "Oh, sure." So we started opening for bands and then we ended up headlining.

TR: At the time it was such a dark, dismal art-rock scene that you really stood out.

FS: Punk was dying out a little bit, and New Wave was just starting. We just did what we did and got lumped in with the New Wavers, which I guess is what we were, 'cause we were pretty wild and crude, energetic and different. I mean, we weren't up there in leather jackets like everyone else. I was wearing horrible polyester outfits.

TR: And then you opened the Mudd Club.

FS: We opened the Mudd Club on Halloween 1978. The stage was so small, and this guy in a lobster suit insisted on getting up on stage, and the stage collapsed. He fell down in this hole and our equipment started sliding in the hole.

TR: And then there was the legendary show at Hurrah's in the early part of '79, when there were so many people trying to get inside that there was a riot on 62nd Street.

FS: There's a live video of "Rock Lobster" from that night.

TR: Oh, that show was so wild. Your concerts are like revival meetings.

FS: I always thought we were one of the best performing live bands around.

TR: For your "Cosmic Thing" tour, are you golng to have any sort of stage show?

FS: It's going to be the most amazing visual extravaganza you'll ever see. A giant swimming pool with people diving into it, marching bands, wind machines blowing... Actually, we'll probably do something pretty simple 'cause we put on enough of a show. We don't need all that crap to distract from what we're doing.

TR: Cosmic Thing will be out in the stores the end of June?

FS: "Cosmic Thing", the single, is out now. It's on the soundtrack for the Julien Temple film Earth Girls Are Easy.

TR: How did it make you feel when John Lennon singled The B-52's out as an inspiration to get back into music?

FS: I thought it was really exciting 'cause we were all big fans of his and The Beatles. You can't have a better, bigger compliment that someone you admire who likes what you do.

TR: Wasn't Yoko a big influence on the band too?

FS: I always liked her music and her sense of freedom. What she did with her voice, I don't like, but you can hear a little bit of that when Cindy and Kate do their wails.

TR: You had written poetry before you were in the band. You had a book BLEB and then you wrote a book illustrated by Kenny Scharf. Do you consider yourself a writer?

FS: I consider myself a writer. I like to write humorous surreal verse. I can sing what I write, but I don't consider myself a great singer.

TR: Do you consider yourself a rock star?

FS: Naaaaa ......................

TR: Just wait for that tour.

FS: My real life is pretty normal, down to earth, and then it's all of a sudden back in the limelight. It's fun though. But it's gruelling to go out night after night and play, but this time we're going to play different songs on different nights.

TR: Really?

FS: We'll have about six songs that will be different, so you'll have to come both nights to see all the songs.

TR: It was pretty brave of' you to say, at CBGB's back in '78, "This is a dance song."

FS: We didn't know what people were doing up here. We didn't care. It was take us or leave us. At our very first show, at Max's Kansas City, there were 17 people just standing there with their arms folded and we were up there dancing our butts off. It just wasn't cool to dance in New York. In Athens, everybody danced.

TR: And there weren't any clubs at the time to dance to rock muslc. The Mudd Club and Hurrah's were the flrst ones.

FS: Even at CBGB's, our first concerts started turning into dance things. And every album we've made has had some dance songs.

TR: I think "Dry County" could be a huge dance floor hit.

FS: So does Nile (Rogers). It moves.

TR: Cosmic Thing sounds like what people would identify as B-52's .

FS: I think this album sounds more like what people would think of The B-52's than say the past three. Each album has its great songs.

TR: What are some of your favorite songs that you've done?

FS: "Love Shack", "Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can", "Planet Claire", "6060842" and "Strobe Light".

TR: Are you going to revive any of those in concert?

FS: I hope we'll do "Strobe Light". It always gets a good response and it gets me goin' and makes me laugh.

TR: And I love the trade-offs that you do with Kate and Cindy.

FS: Yeah, I think that's really us - trading off, everybody sharing.

Tom Rubnitz: What were you doing before you started rehearsing with the band.

Cindy Wilson: I was living with Ricky and waitressing.

TR: Did you ever fantasize about being a singer or some kind of star?

CW: You know, of course, you daydream. But I always thought I was a little different.

TR: Really?

CW: Yes.

TR: Did you work your own hair and put it up into bouffants in the early days?

CW: Yes, I used to do it for a long time, till it just got ruined, you know, by teasing. Wigs were the way to go.

TR: What do you think people thought of you at the very beginning?

CW: A lot of people imagined Georgia to be the hills, and not the university town that it is, and how well-traveled Ricky, Keith, Kate and Fred are. I was the hick, you know.

TR: You were just white trash.

CW: Yeah, I played that image up - the trailer park. I'm really from a middle-class family. But I did like to play it up.

TR: Did you teach yourself to play bongos?

CW: Actually, Keith Strickland kind of taught me a few beats.

TR: You can really whack those things.

CW: Well, I think I do have a natural sense of rhythm.

TR: Have you ever thought about putting out a solo record or doing a show in Las Vegas?

CW: (Laughs) I did a song with an Athens, Georgia band, "Dreams So Real," that my girlfriend Shannon and I had written and the band put the music to it.

TR: You know you have a lot of admirers out there.

CW: It's great. It sounds corny but it's true, our fans are a FUN group of people.

TR: When you perform do you work off of the crowds energy?

CW: Oh, yeah. You know that Rock Against Fur concert, besides being a good conscience-raising event, on a personal level it gave me confidence. People really wanted us to perform, and since its been so long, I didn't know what fans we had out there.

TR: You have to think of it this way - the people that grew up with The B-52's now have kids.

CW: (Laughs) Oh Lord... I'm old.

TR: There's more people out there listening to your music. Are there any songs that you want to perform live?

CW: I can't wait, Lord have mercy, my soul has been craving to perform some of the songs off Bouncing Off The Satellites, like "Ain't it a Shame". I can hear it, boy, I can hear it, and I can feel it. It's such a pretty song and live, you know, I don't feel I have much control when we're recording, but when I'm performing on stage, when we're all going at it together, that's it. I love live shows! Kate and I have some interesting new harmonizing on "Channel Z" and "Love Shack.'' When you hear that you're just going to jump up and . . .

TR: Pop!

CW: Pop . . . or I don't know what.

TR: What is it that you say in "Love Shack?"

CW: Tin roof rusted!

TR: What is that?

CW: It's just a description of the Love Shack, just nonsense that I made up when we were jamming, and the rest of the band thought it was so funny, we stuck it in there. Actually, in the South, they have metal roofs that tend to rust.

TR: I hear you're going to play "Private Idaho".

CW: It sounds real good. What I'd like to do is "Hero Worship". I haven't done that in years!