Talking Heads' Jerry Harrison Calls the Group's Reunion a "Healing Experience"

In the 32 years since Talking Heads broke up amid some animosity, plenty of lobs have been sent between David Byrne — the group’s leader and most visible, uh, talking head — and the other three members. Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison all toured in the early ’90s under the name Shrunken Heads, and the former two also had their successful side project Tom Tom Club.

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The four have, for their part, reunited a number of times — they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 — but never performed all together. Ahead of another exciting non-musical reunion at the Toronto International Film Festival for a new take on their seminal 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, Harrison is talking about how he’s ready to “let bygones be bygones.”

Speaking with Consequence‘s Kyle Meredith on a recent podcast episode, Harrison praised the “healing” element of gathering the quartet back together to celebrate one of their finest achievements.

“I think it’s been somewhat of a healing experience for everybody, because it’s like, yeah, we actually can work together and do this,” he said. “The conflicts that people have spent a lot of time talking about, they still can be looked up. It’s not like the feelings that made people say various things are totally gone or anything like that, but it’s sort of like, they’ve been voiced, do you need to voice things like that over and over again?”

“Let bygones be bygones,” Harrison continued. “Because why waste our time on these petty complaints from the past?”

A new, restored, “pristine 4K” version of Stop Making Sense will arrive at TIFF on September 11, followed by select IMAX screenings beginning on September 22. From there, the Jonathan Demme-directed performance movie — widely hailed as one of the best concert films of all time — will venture to theaters on September 29.

Talking Heads fans, watch out. You might get what you’re after.