David Byrne has said that he was “self-cancelled” and called Spike Lee over a previous instance of wearing Blackface.
The comments refer to the artist using Blackface in a promo skit for Talking Heads’ concert film Stop Making Sense, which came out in 1984. The piece saw him appear as various different characters, having a conversation with himself, and some of which were people of colour.
Byrne would later reflect on the decision to wear Blackface in 2020 and describe it as a “major mistake in judgement”. “I just about forgotten about this skit and I’m grateful that it has been brought to my attention,” he said at the time, adding that it “showed a lack of real understanding.”
Now, he has reflected on the topic again in a new interview with Louis Theroux as part of the latter’s podcast, and said that he “self-cancelled” over the use of Blackface, and tried not to shy away from confronting his past, even if it was uncomfortable.
Speaking about cancel culture, Byrne said: “I think it’s nuanced. If someone has actually done not-so-good things recently, and tried to kind of hide them, then I thought, ‘Oh, it’s fine to call that out.’ [But] Sometimes people are cancelled if they’ve done something way in the past, 20, 30 years ago [though, and] I feel like human beings can change.”
“We can learn from our mistakes [so] let’s look at what they’ve done since then. If they made a mistake and it’s not this really horrible thing. Then let’s see if they’ve kind of made amends and how they’ve behaved since then, because maybe that was just a mistake,” he added. “The thing with the internet is you can dredge up the past on everybody and embarrass almost anybody by something they’ve done in the past.”
Talking specifically about the Stop Making Sense promo video from 1984, Byrne continued: “Some years ago, […] I realised, ‘Oh god, look, I’m in Blackface’. It was not done as a parody or caricature or anything like, but that was one of the characters, and I realised I would never do that now.
“That was a long time ago. This is a clip that’s available online. It’s probably on YouTube… [it’s] not hidden. This is not something that’s on some obscure piece of videotape or whatever. It’s right there. So I made an announcement and said, ‘I did this. Here it is. I did this. I would never do this now, but here it is’.
Continuing, the Talking Heads star said not only did he “self-cancel”, he also called up American filmmaker Spike Lee to announce that he was going to shed light on the 1984 video.
“I called up Spike Lee and said, ‘I did this. I just want you to want you to know that I’m going to announce that I did this”. And he said, ‘David, I know you. People know you. Don’t worry about it.’ But at the same time, there were a few organisations that did cancel me…there was a speaking engagement that said we can’t have you talk. That was a few years ago.”
Byrne also spoke out about the skit in 2023, when he told The New York Times that “as much as I might like to deny it, I harboured a lot of racial biases” in youth.
“I realised I may rationally say that I’m not racist, but I have implicit biases that I would like to deny, but they’re there,” he told the outlet, sharing his efforts to make actual change. “Overcoming those is more difficult than just rationally saying, ‘Oh, no, that’s not right’. Those beliefs and biases, whether they’re about race or women’s rights or whatever they might be, those things can take a long time to fundamentally change within us.”
In other David Byrne news, the singer recently performed Talking Heads‘ ‘Psycho Killer’ for the first time in 19 years to kickstart his solo 2025 tour, and has announced upcoming appearances at Coachella 2026, Open’er Festival, and Latitude.
The new tour dates come following the Talking Heads icon sharing his new album ‘Who Is The Sky?’, which features Hayley Williams, St. Vincent, and more.
As for a Talking Heads reunion, Byrne has dismissed the idea of getting the band back together multiple times, calling it “a fool’s errand”.
Talking Heads have not performed together since 1984, and while they had a brief reunion in 2023, they have consistently denied rumours of a full-blown comeback for years now. The members have also clarified that Talking Heads will not be touring again, as they wouldn’t be able to recapture the magic of their early days.
Fans’ hopes of a reunion were raised this summer when the band teased a huge announcement back in June. It ended up being the first ever music video for their iconic hit ‘Psycho Killer’, which starred Saoirse Ronan, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their first live performance.
