Talking Heads Reportedly Turned Down $80 Million to Reunite

Talking Heads will not be reuniting, but that hasn’t stopped promoters from trying to get the band back together.

According to Billboard, concert giant Live Nation “told the Talking Heads it was willing to pay the band $80 million to headline six to eight festival gigs and headlining slots.”

That offer came on the heels of a similar attempt by Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett, who wanted to get the legendary group to reunite at Coachella. Billboard claims the band could have earned “as much as $10 million” for the two-weekend festival.

Ultimately, Talking Heads turned down both the Live Nation and Coachella offers.

Talking Heads Appeared Together for the First Time in Over 20 Years

Talking Heads – made up of David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison and Chris Frantz – last performed together when the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. You have to go back even further, all the way to 1984, to find the last time they played a full concert together.

Still, fans were hopeful that the estranged bandmates may have mended their fences. In 2023, all four members appeared together publicly for the first time in 21 years as they celebrated the 40th-anniversary of Stop Making Sense with a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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“We have a cordial relationship now,” Byrne noted prior to appearance. “We’re sort of in touch, but we don’t hang out together.”

The singer also admitted he had “regrets” about how Talking Heads ended – he reportedly just left the group without even discussing it with the rest of the band.

“I don’t think I did it in the best way,” Byrne confessed, “but I think it was kind of inevitable that would happen anyway.”