Kate Pierson of the B-52s, singer songwriter

Kate Pierson is a founding member of the B-52s: The World's Greatest Party Band, and a beacon for weirdos and queer-does since the late 70s. 

After decades of collaborating with the likes of Iggy Pop, R.E.M., and her Japanese side-band NiNa (more on that in the episode), Kate began writing and recording her entirely solo output in 2015. Last year, her second album Radios and Rainbows was released, and at the age of 77, Kate is bubbling with inspiration and drive to create. 

Between the B-52s' legendary back catalogue (which I've only recently started discovering myself), Kate's solo work, and her reflections on her own queer legacy, there's a lot to get through in this conversation. Strap in.

The other bits:

• Tracks of Our Queers is recorded and edited between Gadigal and Ngarigo land in Australia, by me, Andy Gott
• Listen to all of the music discussed in the pod with the Selections from Tracks of Our Queers playlist
• You can email me your own queer tracks or guest recommendations at tracksofourqueers@gmail.com
• Our beautiful artwork is illustrated by Luke Tribe.

Transcript

Kate Pierson
===

Andy Gott: ~All right. Hello and welcome to Tracks of Our Queers. ~[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Tracks of our Queers. My name is Andy Gott, and each episode I chat to a fascinating queer person about one song, one album, and one artist that have each soundtrack their life as queer listeners, as artists themselves, as people.

The songs that have made us feel seen, challenged, uplifted, confused, joyful, alive. One of the absolute joys of making this podcast is when a guest introduces me to a selection that I haven't paid too much attention to before, and I end up falling head over heels. Geeking out over a shared favorite is always a thrill, but honestly, I feel like I've won when I get to discover something new or rediscover something old.

And that's exactly what happened here last year. I interviewed songwriter and Broadway show creator Ash Gordon, who chose the B 50 twos as her artist. It's a great chat. Highly recommend if you haven't heard it already. And like [00:01:00] most people, I've known the ever present almost mythic party banger that is Love Shack forever, and could maybe name a handful of others I enjoyed as well, like R or Mesopotamia.

My overall perception of the B 50 twos was a fun, kooky left of center band with a queer adjacent vibe, so all checks out, but that was about it. It was Ash's passion for their influence and their place in the queer musical cannon that, I have to say, spark something. I started dipping in.

I started to identify as B 50 twos, curious. And then earlier this year, I got an email. Would I like to interview Kate Pearson herself, one of the band's iconic voices, and a lifelong queer music icon in her own right. Cut to present day and I have honestly been in full B 50 twos immersion ever since I am.

Obsessed. I can already tell that this year's Spotify rap will be [00:02:00] absolutely dominated by the likes of private Idaho legal tender Queen of Las Vegas. Give me back My man and iconically girl from Ima goes to Greenland, which might just be the queerest song title of all time. So what started as polite research ahead of talking to a band member turned into full blown fandom.

I am now trying to maintain some semblance of professionalism while quietly losing it over a band. I've actually only truly discovered this year So if like me, you're a tad unfamiliar. The B 50 twos were a group of quirky weirdos who emerged from late seventies Athens, Georgia, and made their way to New York and the world.

Without ever really hiding their otherness. Their Saturday Night Live debut performing rock lobster welcomed in legions of fans who wanted to party with the weird kids ~and their journey re reached come up ~and their journey reached Commercial Peak with the [00:03:00] 1989 album Cosmic Thing produced. Following the death of founding guitarist Ricky Wilson, brother to the band's other iconic female singer, Cindy Wilson.

Ricky died from AIDS related illness and cosmic things shimmers and shines with the voices of the bandmates that he'd left behind grieving, healing, and hearkening back to a much more innocent time. The fact that their biggest commercial success, the album actually sold more than their previous four combined, came as a way to process such intense queer grief 

Adds a poignantly queer layer to their legacy. But back to Kate, beyond her 40 year career with the B 50 twos, Kate went on to partner with the likes of Iggy Pop, an REM. She joined the Japanese band, Nina, and even scored a number one album there. And in 2015 she released her debut solo album. 

Last year she released the follow-up radios and rainbows, a glittery emotional, politically sharp collection of songs that span dance balladry and [00:04:00] revenge disco. So there we have it 

~While I'm at the peak of my newfound infatuation with their back catalog, am I embarrassed? It took me this. ~Am I embarrassed? It took me this long to visit Planet Claire, perhaps. But it's also exhilarating knowing that there's still so much out there to find as a music listener. And if you're a veteran, B 50 twos fan listening right now.

I'm sorry. Roll your eyes if you must, but let me in. I'm here. I'm ready to dance this mess around. And finally, just before we dive in, if you enjoy the show and want to support it, the best thing you can do is leave a rating or review in your podcast app. It helps so much, and if you're feeling generous, there's a link in the show notes to buy me a coffee.

Every little bit helps. Okay? Please enjoy this conversation with the one and only Kate Pearson of the B 50 twos.

Kate Pearson, welcome to Tracks of Our Quiz.

Kate Pierson: Thank you so much for having me.

I'm here. We're here. We're queer.

Andy Gott: and get used to it. Tell me about your earliest musical memory.

Kate Pierson: My earliest musical memory [00:05:00] was Jerry Lee Lewis. Great Balls of Fire. We had an old radio. We lived in Wee Hawk in New Jersey, and we had one of those old, like old fashioned radio. It had like a green eye. You probably don't even know about this, but it like a console, dark brown and it had all these dials and you know, it was just like huge.

It was huge. But it was just a radio. It was gigantic. And I guess it had really good sound and great balls of fire. Anyway, the, it blasted out on that radio and I just, it just hit me viscerally. I rolled on the floor and laughed. It tickled me and that was like, oh my god, rock and roll had got me.

~Then,~ 

Andy Gott: And what was the reaction of your family around you?

Kate Pierson: well, my father. Was a musician. He played guitar and he played in a big band when he was very young or early twenties. And then when he got [00:06:00] married, he quit playing. I mean, he always played at home, but he quit playing ~in a, ~in a band. But, so he was just, I guess, tickled that, you know, I, I always tickled, but yeah, I don't remember their reaction.

I just remember I was so consumed with laughter that I don't know what else was around me.

Andy Gott: then as you were growing older, do you remember perhaps what the first piece of music that you owned was? You know, when you were trying to kind of shape your own taste in music?

Kate Pierson: Um, I had hound dog. I bought Elvis Hound dog.

That was an early thing and I had I bought some, my father had all these 70 eights and he played a lot of jazz and groovy music. A lot of, I guess loungy kind of music too. And he had ema sumac and all that kind of stuff that was popular in the fifties.

So I was always listening to that. And he was always playing big band music. ~He, on his, he got a little, ~he got a [00:07:00] modern Hi-Fi. It was a little box and a very fifties looking little stand. And I remember it was a big Ooh, when he came home with that. That was just amazing.

Andy Gott: It sounds

like he had amazing taste. 

Kate Pierson: He did. He had eclectic taste. He was always interested in what I was listening to as I grew older too. He listened to all my stuff too.

Andy Gott: I love that.

Kate Pierson: And my brother played cello. I played piano. My grandmother played piano. Father played guitar. My mother was the only one that wasn't musical.

Andy Gott: Typically our teenage years are when music might begin to intersect with our identity as we're shaping it, whatever that might be. And I know that you were incredibly engaged during like the folk protest era. I'm keen to understand what singers spoke to you from that time in particular, and what it was about them.

Kate Pierson: This girl from New Jersey was just ~a ~completely enraptured with Delta Blues. Mississippi John Hurt. Go figure. I don't know [00:08:00] why, but I was just completely enthralled with Delta Blues, and that's how I really learned to play guitar. I mean, I used to sit on my dad's lap and I would strum and he would play the chords, but he didn't teach me how to play.

But I just listened to those records and started playing, guitar ~and ~I was just obsessed with, mississippi John Hurt, basically, and all the Robert Johnson and all those blues guys. But I also listened to all the folk. I mean, Bob Dylan, I stared at Joni Mitchell's album. I just stared at her first album ~and, ~and listened to it over and over.

I loved Joni Mitchell, but I listened to all those folk protests, you know, ~the ~Buffy St. Marie and Phil Oaks, ~and particularly Bob Dylan and ~I had a folk protest band in junior high. With my friends and it was called the Sun Donuts originally, the Sundowners. But there was another group [00:09:00] called the, you know, big group called the Sundowners.

And we thought,

Andy Gott: I like Sun

Kate Pierson: same name as them.~ same name as them. ~So Sun Donuts was it. So we wrote our own folk protest songs, but ~I was very, ~I remember playing Hard Rain's gonna fall for my, and said this is genius. And they were like, ah, we hate him, hate Hayden's voice. We're like, listen, no listen. So I never could get them to like Bob Dylan, but yeah, and Pete Seeger and just all that good stuff.

and of course, mamas and The Papa's and, you know, then the Beatles huge, huge 

for me.

Andy Gott: Just about Joni and perhaps Bob Dylan in particular, those two artists have obviously gone on to have very, very long careers. ~What, ~what was your relationship like as a listener with them over the last few decades? Did you continue to listen to their material? Have you continued to see them live?

I'm curious about your listener relationship there.

Kate Pierson: I've seen Joni Mitchell a few times. I saw her with the orchestra ~that she, ~that played with her. That was an amazing show. [00:10:00] And Bob Dylan, I've seen quite a few times. I saw him. In the area here. He played at the Bricky Yards. ~It was, he did mostly his, ~he did a lot of his, sort of hovers of jazz kind of classics.

And surprisingly, it was really good. I really enjoyed that show. And so I followed his career, and particularly when he had a show on Sirius Radio, when he would play all this music that he, and he could comment. That was just amazing. And I've always wanted to meet Bob Dylan, but then I thought, I don't know, maybe not meeting your heroes is not great.

I don't know.

Andy Gott: It's some well-known wisdom, isn't it, to not meet your heroes, although ~I'm sure I've, ~I'm sure you've met quite a few legends in your time. 

Kate Pierson: but mostly contemporary heroes. You know my contemporaries who are heroes and I did briefly meet Joni Mitchell and one time I. I was walking down the street in soho with Keith Strickland, who's in the B 50 twos and we were just walking down, it was [00:11:00] night and I had a little purse and I was spinning it and I was singing something like my little red purse and there comes Joni Mitchell walking down the street and passed me and I was just like, and I didn't stop and say anything.

I was just like, that's Johnny Mitchell. So that was my meeting with her.

Andy Gott: This is slightly off topic, but I loved hearing you talk about this in interviews and that I'm, I'm from the uk, but I live in Australia, and I believe that something compelled you to move to Newcastle, England in your late teens, early twenties.

Please, can you just tell me why and what your recollections are from that time?

Kate Pierson: I guess it's like if you moved to America and just went to Detroit

Andy Gott: Mm-hmm.

Kate Pierson: or something, you know? 'cause ~it's, ~it has its fascination. It has its great points, but it's not like a place you would normally pick, like the groovy spot to be. when I was hitchhiking through Europe, after. Kent State happened in the United States.~ I was protesting anti-Vietnam and~ I was involved in Civil Rights Movement [00:12:00] and anti-Vietnam. And once they shot these students at Kent State, I said, that's it. I outta here. Like I've said a few times, but I never did move, but I'm saying it now. ~But ~so ~I, ~I hitchhiked around New York for a couple years.

I met my future ex-husband from Manchester, Brian Cocaine, and we wound up living in Ireland for a while, and then ~we wound up in. He, I don't know. We were hitchhiking up the coast. ~We wound up in New Castle. He wound up getting a job on a fishing

boat and I got a job ~at, ~at Walls end, the walls end on Tyne, ~the, ~the Anson Pub. So I was a bar Tendre there. And oh my God, the people there were just amazing. At first, I couldn't understand a word they said. By the time I left, ~we checked into a, ~we went to London and we were going back to America and ~I, we went to this what do you call it? A you know, place where, students stay~

Andy Gott: ~Like a hostel or something? Or like ~

Kate Pierson: ~hostile.~

~Thank you. Yes.~ We checked into this hostel and. The guy when I was, you know, talking and writing my name ~and ~he said, I know where you're from. And I said, where? And he said, I thought, he said, say, oh, [00:13:00] you're from New Jersey or America? He said, no, you're from New Castle.

And I was like, oh my God, I've completely absorbed this, ~this ~accent to the point where I was going, where I. 

Andy Gott: That's so funny. Newcastle is such a, the people there are so wonderful, as you've called out, so warm ~and wonderful people. Do you recall tasting Newcastle Brown Ale in your~

~pub? ~

Kate Pierson: ~but everyone that came in said, but. Everyone wanted, you know, brown ale. And there were three, not to go on too much about the ants and pub, but I remember there was a, a, a young person's bar. There was a bar sitter for just like people that worked, you know, working men. It was only men. The men's vault.~

~The men's vault. And they would come in and they would just drink, drink, drink. And then there was a sort of a posh. Bar sitter where people would come on dates and stuff. The one time the people, the young people were having a, some fight broke out and they were just dressed to the nines too. 'cause this, the era was, you know, they were all dressed up and the, and the woman who who ran it just got between 'em and she pushed them apart and said, not in my pub.~

~You don't, you know, it was just like craziness there. I just really, I could tell you so many tales, but it was pretty much an adventure that I probably never would've had anywhere else.~

Andy Gott: ~Absolutely. And when you, I'm sure you must have toured in Newcastle with the B 50 twos at some point.~

~Was yeah. That must have just been such a strange look, contradiction to, to go back to the, so, so anyway, my question next is how~

Kate Pierson: ~Oh, I just had to say ~

~one thing at,~ I heard that at the Anson Hotel. There's a picture of me there.

Andy Gott: I quite rightly as there should be. How did Kate Pearson get from Newcastle, England to Athens, Georgia?

Kate Pierson: Another kind of long story that I'll have to try to make concise, but basically we wanted to move, Brian wanted to work on fishing boat and he thought we'll go to South Carolina, but ~my good ~instead, my good friend. Said, come see. As soon as we got back to America and Brian brought his bicycle on the ship, we went on this crazy SS Canberra that was only $99 to go all the way a luxury liner went to New York. that's a whole other story. [00:14:00] But Brian got his bicycle and rode from New York City to my parents' house in New Jersey, which they were like,

what? So my friend said. Come see me. And she lived in a house, like a hippie commune with a bunch of people, and they were driving down to Athens to hike the Appalachian Trail.

So we thought, well, let's go there. And one of them said they could give Brian a job without a green

card. So we just went there and we decided to do a Back to the land thing. We had goats and chickens and we made ~goat, you know, ~goat cheese and did the whole huge garden and hung out with the neighbors.

Didn't go into, even to Athens town much. We rode our bicycles to get, you know, feed and and Athens was very much like a farmer's town. It had a seed store and a feed store and farmer's hardware. Then later we broke up and I met the band and ~I started, ~I got a job in town and Athens was still a very sleepy [00:15:00] farmer's town.

When the B 52 started,

Andy Gott: Yeah. Honestly, that lifestyle with the goats and the goat cheese and riding your bicycle sounds absolutely idyllic.

Kate Pierson: I was by choice, very poor.

I mean. I guess by choice, ~although I don't know what big job I could have gotten in Athens,~ but I was, my friend said You were the poorest person. I ~know, ~know, you know And it was just interesting to see how quickly you can feel poor, even if it's by choice. I mean, my parents were by no means ~were ~supporting me in any way or rich or had any money, but, still, I could have worked at a better job. We started to do this back to the land thing and not work and just work at the garden and subsist. And pretty soon you could start feeling like I'm really poor. And you get that mindset ~you, ~you can't pay for anyone to pick up the trash, so you understand how people have old cars, you know, in their 

backyard.

So I did get a job and then I met the band and then. None of us had any money when we started, but I worked at the Athens newspaper as [00:16:00] a pay up artist.~ I do have a degree in journalism,~

~so so not that pay up artist is the a pinnacle, but I really enjoyed being a pay up artist.~ And then I'm started touring.

I'm the band, started playing a lot of gigs and I had to quit that. And then we just did it.

Andy Gott: The story of the band's founding is a well-documented one, and it's often been described as a spontaneous combustion. ~So I guess my only question in that area is~ do you recall that initial first impression of ~when you saw, ~when you met ~your first, ~your fellow band mates for the first time ~on?~

Kate Pierson: yes. I met them in different, slightly different times, but I met. Keith Strickland, who was playing in another band, just subbing, he was playing drums. And my friend Jeremy Ayers, who was very influential to all of us, took me to see and he said, there's that drummer, Keith Strickland. So I met Keith, I met Ricky then.

'cause he was always hanging around with Keith. And then I met Fred at a party. We were dancing together. And then I met Cindy at a Halloween. ~I. ~[00:17:00] Fred and I both met Cindy on Halloween and we had masks on, and I had this mask. I had very long hair, and I had this angel mask with wings that I had made out of you know, I just made it anyway, and I put my hair over the wings.

~That's, anyway,~ Cindy said her first impression was like, whoa.

Andy Gott: I love it. so usually when I ~in ~speak to a guest on tracks of our queers, the guest will bring ~a, ~a track and album and an artist, and we're keeping that format with our conversation, Kate, but ~we're kind of flipping it and ~we're also staying a bit closer to home, and I can't wait to hear why.

~But the artist that you've picked are the B 50 twos. In terms of how they resonate with your journey as a queer person. So we're just, just gonna dive right in and I've,~ I've been firmly planted on, planet B 52. For the last couple of weeks I've been fully immersed in the audio visual world of your band.

And of course your solo music, which we're gonna get to. I've got a lot of questions about your solo music as well. ~The, the, the first question that springs to mind is ~when I look at that time period of late seventies, early eighties, I am fascinated by how such a obviously eccentric, esoteric band was signed by a major label in the us.

~When I look at the musical landscape now, and I think back then, I, I, I just wanna know what do you think~ now with the benefit of [00:18:00] hindsight, what do you think? Convince them to take a chance on you because we know that you resonated very quickly with audiences, but what convinced those corporates to sign the \contract?

Kate Pierson: I think definitely it's the word of mouth and. Audience reaction because ~they, ~even though some people in the music industry, like Seymour Stein, who desperately wanted to sign us, was a very musical kind of a and r record head. I mean, he really, really loved music. we were pursued by Island Records and Virgin Records, and we didn't know what to do.

~We didn't, ~we were just frozen. We didn't know ~what, ~what to do. So we just waited, which was great. ~And ~then, ~Tina and Chris have in, ~when we were playing CBGBs and Max Kansas City, Tina and Chris from Talking Heads introduced us to Gary Kert, our first manager. He was instrumental in getting [00:19:00] assigned, but it really was the fact that we were attracting such a crowd that all these record companies, Seymour Stein, and they all came down to Athens, Virgin Records, came down to Athens to try to woo us and all we could think of is free dinner. They're gonna take us out to dinner because we just,

we just didn't know what to do. But ~I, ~it was definitely not so much that they loved the music or recognized its unique qualities. It was more like. They've got something. We don't know what it is, but it's some kind of alchemy that's attracting people and making people dance, and it's something new and different and we wanna sign them for that reason.

Andy Gott: of course I love that. You know, the B 50 twos. Well, especially yourself and Cindy, were. Sometimes mistaken for drag queens or thought to be from the uk, which I also equally love. I'm obsessed as, as a Brit that, you know, ~there, ~there are these amazing [00:20:00] American bands or artists who, if they're slightly left of field or bring a quirkiness, people just assume they're from the uk.

Kate Pierson: this like being from Mars, you know, UK Or they did say they were from outer space too, or the uk.

Andy Gott: And there's other bands in ~recent years,~ more recent years, like The Gossip and the Scissor Sisters who've kind of tread ~treaded, trod ~a similar path. And I love that they slot into a lineage that perhaps the B 50 twos began because it then ties into this whole idea of. Otherness and then it comes back to who were the people who were crowding your audiences.

Yes, there might have been people there who just really loved the music, but I know that there were people there who felt seen in what you were producing, the image that you were putting out there. People who might have felt. A little bit outcast from mainstream society. There's lines in your music, like I love the line in the song.

There's a moon in the sky where it's, if you're in outer space, don't feel out of place. 'cause there are thousands of others like you. [00:21:00] Yes. Four out of five of the original B 52 members are or were gay or queer identifying. And I know that each of you would've had your own very personal relationship with your identity. And I'd love to ask you a little bit more about your own, but do you recall any early discussions in the seventies or eighties around feeling a little bit different from other people in that area of your life?

Was it something that was openly discussed or. did you know that each other were perhaps queer?

Kate Pierson: Well, definitely Fred and Cindy and Ricky knew they were queer. And Cindy's, she's experimental, but no, she's been married a long time and heterosexual. But you know ~but ~I didn't know I was really with men until I met Monica.

We all had a collective queer sensibility. I mean, [00:22:00] I right away clicked into that kind of humor that's very gay.

And 

I guess, ~you know our, and it was, but it wasn't,~ 'cause Keith Strickland says this a lot that he, growing up in Athens, he didn't feel that much of other being gay. He and Ricky. 'cause Athens is a, you know, university town even though there were jocks there. And actually they threw bricks at us one time 'cause we were all dressed crazy and they missed but. But it was, you know, we were really I guess we had a, a queer sensibility identity in our look too. 'cause we'd loved to look at these sixties magazines that Vogue, that Diana Reland was the editor then, and this really loved to mind the thrift stores and wear wigs. So it wasn't specifically, Keith said he never felt like he was an outcast in Athens and he always was out. And Ricky was [00:23:00] very, very quiet and shy. ~It wasn't always that quiet, but he was very shy and very, very private. So, I mean, I think it was pretty obvious that they were gay. But ~and Fred,

Of course in his like outlandish, you know, his outfits and his loud shirts and his painted on mustache and ~his, all, ~his whole shtick was very, very gay.

Andy Gott: ~I love that. It sounds like when you, ~when you mentioned that he never felt like he had to come out because he didn't feel othered in the town, it sounds like he was allowed to just completely flourish to be himself.

Kate Pierson: and ~they went up to~ Keith and Ricky went up to visit our friend Jeremy Ayers, who was part of the Warhol factory 

group. He was silver thin, and so they went to visit him in New York and they said that the some of the people at the factory ~were just really. ~Treated them really kind of disdainfully.

So they, but Athens was just like this little beautiful cocoon where you could be anything you wanted. Southern eccentrics and gay people and you know, women, everyone just sort of included because there was a big art school there. And even though there were sort of, it was a big football team thing, there was also this big flourishing art scene.

So people [00:24:00] just gravitated there. But there were no bands When we started, there was a southern boogie kind of music scene, but no, no punk bands or nothing was happening.

Andy Gott: but it kind of makes sense now. Understanding why your success there was so extraordinary, because it sounds like it was a scene waiting for music to be made there. It had all of the right elements. It was almost like it was just ready to explode. Mm-hmm.

Kate Pierson: ~ground, and I think this was happening in many, you know, Akron, Ohio, and. All these other PLA little towns or cities that were fomenting this music scene that kind of do it yourself. You can grab a guitar and let's just make a band ~

Andy Gott: ~Yeah. ~

Kate Pierson: ~let's bring it up down to, you know, a simpler kind of thing.~

~'cause some kind of grandiosity was happening with music that needed to be, you know, punched down. But also in the south it was like. You know, the Allman Brothers and stuff, which is great. But you know, that was just kind of what was everyone listened to. So when we started it was like, what? There was one punk band called the fans in Atlanta, and they were the ones that encouraged us to bring a tape to CBGBs~

~and Maxons, Kansas City.~

~So we, went up to New York, brought the tape rejected by CBGBs, but we got the gig at Max's. So we went up there and started playing, going to New York. We'd come back and rehearse, write a couple of new songs and drive back up to New York play, come right back home.~

Andy Gott: ~Hmm. What a wild time.~

Kate Pierson: And Fred, I mean, Fred just let a freak flag fly. He used to just run down the street with a crazy wig on. And, you know, ~he, ~he was a waiter at the, ~at the ~local, restaurant and he'd wear crazy, you know, leopard bell bottoms and Keith used to wear a little red wig. And yeah, so we ~would, ~could just really be ourselves ~and, ~and just [00:25:00] do crazy stuff and run around and

do our thing.

Andy Gott: I have got so many questions I could ask you about you know, the, the early years of your career in the B 52, some incredible albums and some amazing tracks there, but I am limited in time. So we're gonna jump a bit forward to the album that you picked for this conversation. Which is cosmic thing, and I'm very ~interested, or I'm ~interested in many parts of cosmic thing's story, but can you please just summarize where Cosmic Thing sits in the B 50 twos Body of Work, when it was released in the mid eighties, what was happening before and what, what produced that specific album?

Kate Pierson: Well, the body of our work was before that, and ~we haven't done, ~we haven't really done many albums. I guess the secret to our longevity is ~too, ~we took breaks. [00:26:00] We didn't grind ourselves into the ground, although we've done tons, tons of touring. But still, we did take some breaks. ~I. But B 50,~ but the cosmic thing, I mean, obviously the B 50 twos, I picked that because that's ~obviously ~the most influential thing that happened in my life ~is ~being part of that band. But cosmic thing was a rebirth in a lot of ways. It was like a Phoenix, because after Ricky died in 1985 of aids, oh my God. It was just, it seemed so devastating. It didn't seem like we would ever come back from that, and yet music is so healing. When we decided to get back together, it really was just a healing process.

And we even said, which we never do make declarations, but we said, we're not doing this for radio or for commercial purposes. We're doing this for ourselves.

To heal and it just felt like we conjured Ricky's spirit back and a lot of the songs on Cosmic Thing recall this time in Athens of [00:27:00] innocence and starting out and un self-consciousness.

I remember Bob Dylan saying something about when ~you start writing the first, ~you first start writing, you're totally unselfconscious about it, and then ~you, ~you have to sort of try not to be. So conscious and then this, we were not self-conscious. We just let it flow and all these songs came out and it really just was kind of miraculous and, and healing the way it just turned out to be something that was such a success.

Andy Gott: ~Yeah. I don't really know where to start. You've just hit on so many incredible themes there.~ So the album, it came out of an intensive grieving period. And I love that it unlocked in you ~that self of ~that sense of unconscious, just letting it flow. But ~it's, it's. It's also, yeah, that very autobiographical time.~

~So was there that yearning~ after having gone through something so tragic and awful and adult, but especially specifically in the eighties, the specter of hiv aids was [00:28:00] everywhere and it was taking a lot of incredibly talented, creative people and ~there it was, ~it was impacting your band right there. And then someone who'd been with you from the beginning.

Do you think that's what naturally led to that? Reclaiming of a more innocent time. Going back to a time where that ~I, ~I, there's not even a word to summarize really, the impact that HIV aids was having, but going back to a 

Kate Pierson: Oh 

Andy Gott: simply didn't exist. 

Kate Pierson: Yeah. I mean, that was just. So devastating. So many friends, so many beautiful, just the brightest lights. It seemed just beautiful people, artists and musicians, and I mean, all fashion. Everyone, you know, were just falling, just falling down. It was just so devastating, so many friends, and it's hard to think how we could have survived even just. Going through that and there was such a lack of support from the government and, you know, I remember [00:29:00] Act Up and so much activism and yet it was just fell on deaf ears a lot. 

And 

it, it was a time when just it's, it was very bleak, but there were so many people doing great music and there was a lot of dancing and there was kind of the birth of hip hop happening.

It was really exciting too. So you had to have a counter to that grief. You had to have something that can enliven your spirit during that time. So I think, you know, cosmic things certainly was a culmination of pulling yourself out of grief or mourning. 

And hard times. 'cause we were always about, you know, being a tacky little dance band from Athens.

So, you know, we had to hold up that flag, 

Andy Gott: And I wonder if those fans who had been with you since the very beginning and would obviously notice Ricky's absence initially, I wonder if they also additionally noticed a change in your music as a result. Like [00:30:00] had something switched in the band had dynamics changed? For better or for worse?

I'm imagining, you know, I'm sure a lot of people would've seen there's something different here. 

Kate Pierson: Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure they realized that the songs were ~about a lot of, you know, the songs were obviously ~about a lot of times in Athens and Conjuring up ~or those, ~those, times where we were together with Ricky. But also it was a huge change in the sound ~we added. A big ba ~We added so-called side musicians, but they're really part of our family, part of the band.

~And Tracy Wormworth has been with us since Cosmic Thing~

~and Lene Campbell, and we had several different drummers Zach Alford and I mean, it was just, we, we switched and Pat Erwin was keyboard player,~ but we switched the sound to a bigger sound. And our first album, we were so disappointed.

After we ~re ~recorded that with Chris Blackwell, his idea was, oh. I want them to sound just like they sound. And we did and we were like, what? We don't, we don't wanna sound, we wanna sound bigger, better. But it was a genius stroke of genius on his part to capture that sparse, punk real raw kind of spirit in that first album.

[00:31:00] So I'm sure some fans missed that sensibility, that stark drip down kind of sensibility that the band had and very quirky, but. The whole, all the songs really that cosmic thing were much more explosive, much more musical in a lot of ways, you know, just called for more, just more.



Andy Gott: You've said you've used words like explosive, bigger, and better, and I think, you know, we have to acknowledge that the album achieves levels of commercial and critical success for you, which were off the chain, and I find that fascinating for a band who already had at least a decade into their bout of producing and writing and performing to then achieve this extraordinary level of success.

Did you feel gratified by that? Did you feel like you were finally being recognized on a bigger scale for your work?

Kate Pierson: Well, it's an interesting [00:32:00] thing that I think you really need to have. To be, have a commercial success, you need to have a record label really behind you and bouncing off the satellites, which is the last record that Ricky worked on it. I think it was a brilliant album. It completely, they completely dropped it.

We couldn't tour because I mean we were, and another guitar player we're like, no way. We can't tour. So they just thought, that's the end of the B 50 twos. We'll just drop this album. And Mo Austin, the head of Warner Brothers, told me later, you know, we dropped the ball on that. So I think they really got behind Cosmic thing, which was a key element I think, in making its success because.

Just having radio getting radio played, you know, people that would push the record for radio [00:33:00] for the label and. It helps a lot to have, you know, to have that 'cause working now as a solo artist too, finding that, of course radio they say don't even bother with radio. ~Now it's all about, ~you know, we don't even have a radio department anymore.

It's all about online and TikTok. But I love radio. I still listen to radio and get a lot of my music from radio

and podcasts are kinda like the radio.

Andy Gott: ~They are. Yeah. People will never you know, radio, that's a whole other topic.~ My last question actually ~on, ~on Ricky before we move on was, ~you, ~you know, you've acknowledged, the loss of so many people, but Ricky's guitar work in particular in recent years seems to be repeatedly lauded, awarded as some of the most creative unique.

Innovative playing. And was that something that you always recognized at the time, or is that something that's come with hindsight?

Kate Pierson: Oh yeah, he was a fierce guitar player and live, he treated it like a machine gun. He was [00:34:00] like moving like really in this herky jerky movements, and he sweat so much that he could literally ring his shirt out.

He was ~so intense. ~So intense. And I have to give it to Keith Strickland, ~to and~ he and Keith worked together on a lot of ~the, ~the riffs that, Keith came up with a lot of guitar parts too.

~So he, he's multi instrumentalists and they, they worked together on, but the way he, when Ricky played, I mean, he played with.~



Kate Pierson: The fascinating thing is in rock Lobster, he broke two strings. So he had four strings, just the end strings, and he wound up playing like two very different parts on those strings. And I just, I'm still fascinated how he came up with that. It's just amazing. And he played with such intensity. But when Keith took over playing guitar, and he was the drummer first and then ~a ~cosmic thing he ~took, ~took up playing the guitar.

He really, really had to embrace Ricky's parts.

Andy Gott: Yeah.

Kate Pierson: Which ~he, you know, ~he knew, but still to play that and then make it his own style and come up with all the music for Cosmic thing, which is pretty amazing.

Andy Gott: And on top of all of that, doing all of that functional stuff that's required in a band, but also, you know, you're kind of [00:35:00] replacing someone who you love, your best friend has gone. So there's all the, the grieving complications with it as well. ~The, ~the artwork of cosmic thing, I have to say, the album sounds, how the artwork looks.

Does that make sense to you?

Kate Pierson: Yes. ~Yeah. Yeah. I, ~I think it does.

Andy Gott: yeah, it's fabulous. ~The~

Kate Pierson: it's, we wanted to represent us live, I guess,

Andy Gott: Yes. Yeah, it's magical. ~Yeah. ~Nile Rogers brought his own magic. I imagine he produced some of the songs there and I actually ~couldn't, I ~wondered about the sort of full circle connection there because ~you, you work, ~the B 50 twos are not a disco band. You were a punk band, but there were. Disco elements that ran through your music.

I dunno if you agree with that or not, but I'm fascinated by

Kate Pierson: Oh, love disco.

Andy Gott: Absolutely. But you were also coming up at, you know, through like the Disco Sucks movement, where there was a lot of backlash against disco. ~And, you know,~ the associations there with homophobia and racism, of course, that people have discussed a lot more in recent years.

Then to have Nile Rogers as one of like the founding fathers of disco working with you, that seems [00:36:00] like a bit of a full circle moment for me. What was it like with him in the studio?

Kate Pierson: Well, we love disco. For one thing, we were never, disco sucks because we love anything you could dance to. And then, you know, in Athens we would dance to ~a, ~a lot of eclectic music. We listen to. African music because the University of Georgia Library was vast and we could get access to a lot of music. But Donald Rogers was so easy to work with.

We interviewed a bunch of different producers and we met Don was, and neither of them. Could work the whole, ~the ~timeframe to produce the whole record. So we decided, well, why not? We'll just have two producers. So we worked with Don was and Al Rogers. And do Rogers is completely like, he's just. A lot about production and adding stuff to it.

And Don wasn't as much more like organic. Let's just play the songs here. We'll practice and we'll just suss 'em out and listen to the tapes and drive around. So they had really [00:37:00] different approaches. But I think it sounds all like one record. 

Andy Gott: ~Let's get into some of the tracks then.~ I've also been looking at the set list of your solo shows, 'cause you've been touring a lot solo recently. And of course the bulk of your set list is your amazing solo material, which we're gonna get to very soon. But ~there's two albums from, ~there's two tracks from the Cosmic Thing album that pop up in your settlers a lot.

There's Rome and Deadbeat Club. I wonder if they are the ones that you have the most special relationship with, perhaps.

Kate Pierson: Yeah, I mean there are several. There are a bunch of songs that we have to do. ~I mean,~ we'd like to play some deep cuts and we recently put in devils in my car and Queen of Las Vegas, which people haven't heard that much, but it was really fun to do that. But if we don't play Rome or Love Shack, or probably Planet Claire or private Idaho or Rock Lobster, [00:38:00] you know, people will really not be happy.

And you wanna have people. Being satisfied. So we can, as long as we do these key songs and people go away, you know, feeling good. ~Even if we do some songs where they're like~

Andy Gott: For sure, for sure. But you know, it's different, isn't it? Because you've had to perform these songs hundreds, thousands of times, and you know them inside out, and you're probably just chomping at the bit to play new material. But for the listeners of these songs, you know, Rome sounds like freedom and for people to listen and hear live, a song that reminds them of freedom from an earlier part of their life is just.

Pure Magic and Deadbeat Club of course, is that very early Athens nostalgia. One that I've been coming back to a lot in researching for this conversation is I really love Dry County.

Kate Pierson: [00:39:00] I do, I do love that. I wish we could do that. ~I wish, ~maybe we should add

that, uh, there are a lot of songs that we would love to add. ~Doing since we're not touring and we're just doing these Vegas residencies and some festivals. We're doing a festival in Mexico City coming up,~

~but, and then we have these.~

~Dates probably with Devo, even though we said we're never touring again. I still called it the Cherwell tour because I knew, I knew. So the, the time to rehearse, getting together, to rehearse and, and we have to rehearse even though it's one of our songs, we haven't played it in a ~

~while. There's a lot of rust and dust that you know.~ But yeah, I think dry county's a really good one. We should, I'll mention that to revive.

~We also do 52 girls a lot too. And we have to balance with the, you know, so-called girl songs and the, you know, trying to get a balance and,~

Andy Gott: ~huh. Interesting. Okay.~

Kate Pierson: ~you know.~

Andy Gott: We have managed to kind of avoid so far the monster track, ~the the, ~the huge track of cosmic thing, the track that you chose as your selection for this conversation, which is ~Love Shack. ~Love Shack. How do I ask you questions that haven't been asked before about Love Shack?

Well, first of all, I'll probably just call out that you can physically hear how much fun everyone is having on that song. Like do you know when you are speaking to someone on the phone and you can hear when they're smiling? That's what the listener experience is like, is with Love Shack, do you recall [00:40:00] it being that fun to record?

Kate Pierson: Yes. And it was not fun to write because we had different versions of it and it was very controversial. 'cause Fred and I were like, it's gonna be a hit. And Keith said It's not ready. And he was right. It wasn't ready, but we knew ~it was gonna be like ~it was gonna be really good. So. I I knew we had to have the chorus in there more.

'cause I said before, we have, a lot of times we would string these parts together. Oh, this is a good part. And we don't necessarily repeat a lot. Even in Love Shack parts are different. All the parts are different. I knew we'd had to have a anchor with the chorus, with the Love Shack is a little old place and the love shack.

So when we. Went to record with Don. We played it live and we recording at Dreamland, which is right down the road from here. And it's in an old church. It's very [00:41:00] funky place. ~And~

Andy Gott: Hmm.

Kate Pierson: we, we just played it and played it. And then Don, I said to Don, don't you think it needs that chorus? And he was like, absolutely.

That's what I was thinking. And so he suggested it. It wasn't coming from me, so it had to come from someone else. But ~when he suggested putting that in there,~ it all came together. So then it was like, okay, it's a song. It has choruses, it has parts that bring it together. And it became like, okay, this is really like, great now.

This is a great song. ~And okay. Lost the thread here again. Where are we going with this? Love Shack?~

Andy Gott: ~much fun were you having recording ~

~it? ~

Kate Pierson: ~right. That.~

Andy Gott: ~Okay.~

Kate Pierson: So when we finally got it together and recorded it, we had this party track going. So we had a bunch of friends and people doing this like, you know, background party track. So it really was fun.

And ~we do the, ~the sort of style that John was. Of recording, we would play it all together. And it was before there was a lot of, you know, digital manipulation. [00:42:00] So we had to get the right feel and the right vibe, so we would be singing live with ~the, ~the band playing. So it was all very organically, produced and then, you know, the party track.

So ~it, it became, ~it was fun. It was fun. You could hear the fun. I agree. You can 

hear it. 

Andy Gott: and you can see the fun in the video starring, of course, RuPaul. Yes. What do you remember about filming ~the, ~the video?

Kate Pierson: Well, it was ~our, ~our friend ~Philip and ~Philip Mayberry and Scott Walker, they lived in this house. That was their 

house.

with the checkerboard roof, a real house. And they had goats that went featured in the video. Kate and Cindy were the goats, so they were big fans, but we didn't know them. And our friend Tommy Rubin.

~And dlo, the hair dresser, famous hairdresser said, you've got to, I mean, Tommy Rubin said, you've got to do this video in this house. ~And our producer ~of the the, ~director was like, well, we don't wanna go out of the city. Let's shoot it in the studio. But finally we got them to look at it and they were like, oh my God.

This is the, this is the love shack. And we got there early in the morning. It was kind of dusty and hot, [00:43:00] but we did a lot of driving down the road and in that car, in the first scene in there ~and got the,~ and we had our friends, we invited all these friends to come and be in it, including RuPaul. And RuPaul really galvanized it at one point, I think we were just sort of flagging on it and he was like, okay, everybody dance line.

And he got everyone to do that dance line. And once we did that, it just became like a party.

So actually doing the video was kind of like, we're in a party making a party video.

Andy Gott: And just to connect this back to, ~you know, the, ~one of the first questions that I asked around this idea of inclusivity is that, it's easy for us to look back and apply new ways of interpreting things. And sometimes songs just happen because they're fun and that's it.

But I can't help but ~look, ~look at the Love Shack now as. ~It's ~an anthem for a reason. It's about an all-inclusive, sweaty, glittery, welcoming place where everyone can escape to. But I like to apply a bit of a queer reading to that as well. And that being a bit of ~a, ~

an anthem of queer people are [00:44:00] welcome here.

It's a place where we can get together, keep away if you're not interested. This place is for us. 

Kate Pierson: I mean, the line that Fred does, stay away. Fools 'cause love rules at the love shack that says it all. 

Yeah. 

Andy Gott: We're gonna move on to your. Solo work.

There's so much to cover here and I don't wanna keep you late. You have worked with the Ramones Iggy Pop in Japan. You joined a band in the late nineties where you had number one records there. There's so much we could talk about. You've of course, shared a beautiful, creative friendship with Michael Sti from REM, just that other day.

~Kay. I was, I dunno if you've seen this video,~ there's a video of you two rehearsing shiny happy people for a TV show. It is just pure joy when you harmonize and Michael is looking at you and smiling. [00:45:00] I think we're all watching that thinking. I wish I could be singing with my best friend and harmonizing and smiling like that.

It's just so joyous. 

Kate Pierson: That video was. It was so much fun to do, and Michael ~had this, ~did the choreography, he had this little dance routine mapped out. ~And his friend, ~and our friend April, she was, ~she was a ~a grade school teacher, so her students ~did ~painted the backdrop

and Katherine Deman, who, ~who ~directed the video, was just a friend.

And so it was all, got all those videos that you get all your friends together to do it. The best. You know, all people dancing. Just get your friends. You don't have to hire anyone. Everyone just sort of joins in. That was a really fun, and then recording it at Prince and Studio

was pretty magical. It was a big snowstorm.

And Michael and I had a little, you know, fun snowball fight and we kept thinking Prince is gonna appear, but Prince never appeared.

Andy Gott: [00:46:00] And then in 2015 you released your first solo record, and I know there was a lot to get there that I've skipped over. But just tell me about the feelings of, you know, you'd been in the B 50 twos, you'd been in Nina in Japan, so you'd been in bands where you could collaborate with other people.

Tell me about moving into a space where, this is a Kate Pearson album. It's your name on the album, but with that comes the ability to completely control. The music to how you want it. What's your recollections of those times?

Kate Pierson: Well, for one thing during the late nineties I wrote an entire album of songs collaborating with lot. I just wrote myself or I collaborated with some other people, but I didn't get to put it out. 'cause our, our management at the time was just really stalling. Oh, you can't do it because Warner Brothers, you [00:47:00] know, they don't wanna release anything.

~They don't want, you know. Wait till, wait till this. Wait till that.~ Why don't you do a book? I mean, this really stalled me and we were touring a lot too, so I just didn't put it out. And some of those songs reached this. My latest one like Always Till Now, is one of the songs that I

wrote way back then. so I had all those songs, but. Then, as you said, I was in this band, Nina in Japan, and the other singer was Yuki, and we didn't speak the same language, but I realized then I could collaborate with anyone. It was just like a dream collaboration. I mean, people in Japan, it's like, oh, I love your part.

No, I love your part. It's not like a. Competition like that, my part's better. It was just [00:48:00] so, it was so easy and fun. And it We did have a number one, and it was all about the food of course,

tour in Japan,~ ~

but I felt like I unlocked this creative energy then. ~And so, ~but I still had done a solo record and my wife Monica, so instrumental in it.

She we befriended Sia. We met her through our friends Betty, the band Betty. And so they introduced us to Thea and we hit it off and Monica asked Sia, would you help Kate, please just get this out. 'cause it's something she's just dying to do. I went to LA and we started going in these writing sessions and I was like, oh my God.

I'm sort of terrified. But ~we ~one of the first songs we wrote was, every Day is Halloween, which is on this record. so with ~Sam Dixon, sorry, ~Sam Dixon ~and ~Sia and I just sat in a room and came up with this song and ~I don't know why it didn't go on, on guitars and microphones, but anyway, it's on this record.~

~I'm glad. And I had to rerecord it. It was just a demo. But ~going to these writing sessions ~with. ~Started me off [00:49:00] and then she started really blowing up her career. And so ~I went, then ~I finished it and worked, ~with a lot ~with Chris Braid ~and ~Blue McCauley and Jimmy Harry, Tim Anderson produced it.

So it was just really, really fun and I just felt like empowered. I just felt like it was easy, ~it was fun. It was. ~The writing sessions, ~I, ~I just realized, wow, it's just working every time. And all these different people, for the most part, they did all the instrumentation and I would add the, you know, to the melodies and lyrics and harmonies and stuff, ~and some people put input with some lyrics and stuff.~

But it was just so empowering to realize that I could work with anyone.

Pretty much, I don't think there was ever a, ~a fail ~fail dive.

~ ~

Kate Pierson: ~Okay. So unfortunately the pandemic and everything and, and B 50 two's touring delayed the second record. 'cause I really had it together and had most of it written.~

~But I just, I didn't wanna put it out during the pandemic. I just thought, ah, you know, just kind of a. Bummer time. I've actually, I, I enjoyed my pandemic,~

~sojourn being home, you know? ~

~Yes, yes. And my wife and I, we have we had three German Shepherds at the time, but, now we only have one.~

~But, ~

~you know, and I enjoy being home with her.~

~And but she did the artwork. She did the, the album cover, and we did, you know, she shot the video and she was written the for guitars and microphones. So she's really focusing now on her, her own. Ceramics and her jewelry making, plus she ran all of the, the properties that we had, lazy Meadow and Lazy Desert.~

~She ran all of that and now we sold those. So she's, she's free to, do her own creative thing. So I. So on this record, I really, I just worked a lot with John Stapleton. I worked with the, got a great label, our management crush management, who's also CS Management. They've really helped a lot and I just pulled these songs together.~

~Mostly worked with each collaborator. I just thought they'll sort of produce the track and that way I don't have to, you know, just get one producer and it sort of works all together.~

Andy Gott: ~Yeah. Yeah. Marvelous. ~ The album Radios and Rainbows, your second solo album. ~It, ~it sounds so personal. It's joyful, it's vulnerable at times. And then ~there's like, ~there's party tracks, like, take me back to the parties. So much fun. [00:50:00] Pillow queen. I couldn't work out whether that's complimentary or insulting, but I feel like a pillow queen that I felt seen by that song.

Kate Pierson: I think it's complimentary. Yes.



Kate Pierson: It's just someone who's relaxed about sex, you know,

just wants to lay back there.

Do you know this artist? Bright light. Bright light?

Andy Gott: Yes, I've interviewed him for this podcast.

Kate Pierson: So I just noticed him online. I really liked his music and his vibe, and I asked him to do a remix. So that's coming out.

This remix of Pillow Queen. He did a great job. It's gonna be a great summer. Just really, really groove.

Andy Gott: That's so great. He's such a wonderful artist ~and ~and person. I'm sure he would've been thrilled to have that opportunity. ~I also really love the evil love video with your Campy Hitchcock Joan Crawford ~

Kate Pierson: ~Oh, yes, ~

Andy Gott: ~of fun.~

Kate Pierson: ~yes. And John Stapleton did that. We did that in Vegas in the backstage dressing room area. It was so much fun too, to get that with a black wig. And that song is one of the only songs I've ever done. That's I'm a character, and I really enjoyed doing that because I got to be this sort of character in a thriller.~

Andy Gott: ~Yes, yes,~

Kate Pierson: ~Who'd done it well, not who'd done it 'cause I'd done it, but but it's a revenge, it's a revenge thing, which is not really in my usual sort of thing, ~

~but I just enjoy that so much. It's so much fun. Yeah.~

Andy Gott: ~yeah. ~You've mentioned your wife Monica a few times now. And you met her in the early two thousands. You married in Hawaii in 2015, I believe. Sia [00:51:00] was your wedding singer, no less.

Kate Pierson: ~ ~Yes. 

And she's saying, crush me with your love 

Andy Gott: A lot of people discover their queerness through a person. It's not necessarily an identity.

It doesn't have to be at all. And I'm getting the sense that that might have resonated with your relationship with Monica. But I wonder if in the years since how your queerness might have shaped your outlook in the world or indeed your own music, do you feel an identification with queerness or.

~You mean? ~You mentioned in the band you always tapped into that queer sensibility, but yeah. I wonder what your relationship with that is now.

Kate Pierson: Well, I don't ~it's, ~it's interesting 'cause I've met a lot of women who were with men and then they discover that they really should be with a woman or baby, at least at this. I don't know, it was just. It wasn't [00:52:00] like a big epiphany like, oh God, now I'm with a woman. It just seemed so natural when I met Monica and I met her through mutual friends and I had my eye on her.

And, ~and I was in a, ~I had been in this really bad relationship with this guy who was just really emotionally abusive. And I have a song about that called Higher Place. And it's about ~women, ~women's power, but it's also about the sort of feeling of being, oh. It was just, it was just so awful.

And when I met Monica and I had gotten out of that relationship, she really made me ~felt ~so empowered. And so we've been together 20 years now and safe and seen and it just, it makes so much sense that this just. Love that just blossomed. It's just still [00:53:00] continuing.

~So I just really, it's, it's, it's a creative relationship and we have laugh a lot together.~

It's just really, really wonderful. But the, but the queer

Sensibility, it's interesting 'cause I don't ever, I didn't ever felt like I made this major shift. 'cause I always felt queer. I don't know.

Whether I was with men or whatever, you know, ~I just still ~and one long-term relationship I had was with a man who was bisexual.

So, so, you know, I've always been here queer, like you said.

Andy Gott: Yes. ~You always, ~you've always been there. ~Kay. ~I'm talking to one right now, but what does a queer icon mean to you? How do you define a queer icon?

Kate Pierson: Do you ~remember that song? Sing? If you're proud to be Gay, ~remember that song Sing if you're happy that way. Hey who did that song? I mean now I think back on that and that was just so amazing. That came out like long, long time ago. And I think just to your point of asking like, do I feel, you know, what do I feel about being a queer artist?

It's just, it's so fluid now. Well, of course with this new administration, things are. Just insanely backsliding. [00:54:00] But up until now it's felt like, oh, everything is just sort of like, it's easy now. It's, it's just, you don't have to make any declaration. People are fluid, young people are really accepting. All these young people are like, oh, so what?

You know, just, older people are catching on, and it didn't seem like there was a fear anymore of hiding. I mean, it wasn't long ago before it was illegal and gay men were just really, really in danger. And

I mean, women could sort of get by a little more, but just out lesbians and, and just gay men, queer men had just, it was dangerous.

It's just, it's so liberating. And now to see some things just trans people being targeted, it's just awful. So mean-spirited and so terrible. I just feel so bad. I mean, they're rolling back women's rights and we can talk about that for so long, but just the attack on trans people is just so sad and so mean.

Andy Gott: ~mm ~[00:55:00] And it's almost like ~a, ~a redirection. ~It's, it's. ~People are consciously redirecting attention from the big problems. The real enemies at play, which are probably ~are bi, are ~billionaires ruining the planet and they're blaming it on trans people as just this easy target, this scapegoat, which is something that queer people have always faced.

~And I, yeah, people just need to continue~

Kate Pierson: And a vulnerable, you know, vulnerable people and drag queens. What? The attack on drag queens. It's like, oh my God. ~It's just, please, I love drag queens, but ~

you know, I've always loved drag queens. I always had a relationship with drag queens, you know, whether it was RuPaul or Lady Bunny just love, love me a drag queen.

~Just, just the attack on, you know, the danger of drag queens. They're so dangerous. It's like so silly.~ But that's what we're dealing with now. So we just have to forge on with with hope and, and ~make, ~take action whenever we can. And I think in some of these songs like. Radios and rainbows.

I've tried to and, and dream on. I have a song that says, now, you know, people have the power, now's the time to use it. And I've just gotten inspired by Patty Smith's song. Of course, people have the power, [00:56:00] but you know, it's just, it's a time when we have to use our voices. And what we do best in music is to sing.

So,

uh, and use music too.~ ~And I'm gonna protest.

Go back to my protesting.

Andy Gott: ~Good.~ Yeah. Complete full circle. Would you say that your creativity is unlocked? Now that your second album is out, can we see more music from you?

Kate Pierson: Oh. I'm going through some kind of crazy creative

thing where I am writing a Christmas album.

And I'm writing a sort of, well, I thought it was gonna be a country album, but it's very alternative country. And then I have ~some, ~some dance songs too. So I'm not sure how I'm gonna put this all together, but I've been just, ~every day come, not every day, but I've, I'm ~coming up with all these, oh, I just, just popped into my head, you know, a new song.

And that's never happened to me before in this way where without. Somebody collaborating or some inspiration. It's just [00:57:00] like uhoh. This is like sparkling in my head and ~something, you know, I, ~I flesh it out and I've written a bunch of songs. So how am I gonna combine a country Christmas dance album?

Andy Gott: ~Kate Pearson.~ I reckon if anyone can do it, it's you. Yes. Kate Pearson, you are queer and thank you very much for your tracks.

Kate Pierson: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed talking to you. Thank you for your thoughtful and incisive questions.

Andy Gott: My pleasure. ~That was so wonderful, Kate. Thank.~

All right, you can find links to Kate's solo work, including radios and rainbows in the show notes. Kate continues to perform with the B 50 twos throughout 2024, and my current pick from their back catalog is a live recording of a 1989 concert on their Cosmic Thing tour. You can find it on the album's 30th anniversary edition, which is on streaming, and you need to head straight to give me back my man.

Tracks of our queers is presented and produced by me. Andy got entirely on unseated, Gadigal, and the Gaga land here in Australia, and I'd love to hear your [00:58:00] thoughts, ~whether it's your favorite, ~whether it's your favorite, B 50 twos deep cut, your newest queer musical discovery, or just a gay ramble. You can email me at any time at Trex of our queer@gmail.com.

See you next time.