B-52s

How did a group of Southern misfits spend the last four decades bringing queer love and high camp to the mainstream? It’s all in the songs (and maybe the beehives), baby.

- Leah Greenblatt

IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 40 YEARS SINCE A group of sexually fluid new-wave kooks and nonconformists found each other in a Chinese restaurant in Athens, Ga., and formed a band. Through love, loss (guitarist Ricky Wilson died of AIDS-related complications in 1985), and many Love Shacks, they became beloved heroes of the underground—and by the late ’80s, a surprise mainstream sensation. This summer, as original members Fred Schneider, Cindy Wilson, and Kate Pierson (minus Keith Strickland) celebrate with a tour of 40-plus cities, Schneider, 66, looks back with EW.

“KILLER BEES” (Unreleased)

“We just brought three friends together: me, Keith, and Ricky. I mean, I don’t think I even met Cindy until the Halloween before our first jam. It was like, whoever was at this Chinese restaurant sharing drinks became the band. The first song we did that we have takes of was ‘Killer Bees,’ because at the time killer bees were in the headlines— probably in Weekly World News, one of my favorite newspapers. [Laughs] So Kate, Cindy, and I came up with it while Keith and Ricky jammed in our friend’s basement. It can’t be designed, you know?”

“ROCK LOBSTER” (1978)