Devo Interview

When it comes to American music history, few bands have been as wildly inventive — or as defiantly weird — as Devo. Since their groundbreaking debut in the late ’70s, the Ohio-born group has blurred the lines between art, punk, and pop with their razor-sharp satire and unmistakable visual style. Now, founding members Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale are returning to their home state for a special performance in Cleveland on May 11, bringing with them decades of de-evolutionary spirit. Ahead of the show, we caught up with Mothersbaugh and Casale to talk about what it’s like touring after 50 years, the future of Devo, and some classic moments in Devo history. 

“Time flies,” Mouthersbaugh said right away about the band being 50 years old.

But when asked if they were nostalgic or introspective about such an anniversary, or if they just continued to move forward, Jerry joked, “Moving forward at a senior speed.” But when their recent performance at the SNL 50th concert was brought up, and how much they did not look like seniors on stage and were instead rocking out, Jerry also said, “Yeah. Something happened that night. We channeled the past, like 78.”

The current trek is an extension of a tour that started in 2023. They’ve had a reasonable amount of time to judge if the channeling of the past was a fluke or a common occurrence on this tour.

“Well, I mean, all joking aside, I feel better after I perform,” Jerry said. “Look at Mick Jagger… He’s 81, and he’s dancing down a hundred-foot ramp over and over for a two-hour show. I don’t think most 80-year-olds can do that. I think music and performing keeps you young. The physical component is a nice component,” he added. 

When the idea of this being a “farewell tour” was brought up, Mark immediately said, “I hope not.” And then it was brought up that Mark had once mentioned a 100th anniversary tour. Jerry quickly interjected that “Booji Boy said that,” still staying true to the Mothersbaugh’s on-stage alter ego. 

“It’s just hard to keep meeting a certain bar that you set for yourselves,” Jerry continued. “You go out and see ‘legacy acts’ that are pretty sad. It’s like, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be up there. You shouldn’t be doing this.’ And we never want to be those guys. So, maybe after we take care of the world outside of the United States next year, it could be time to think of something else.”

“Also, Booji Boy might have it right on the money,” Mark added. “If some company, one of Elon’s companies, do manage to transfer everything that’s inside the cranium into a chip, they’re still doing it 50 years now.”

Jerry, now entirely on board, said, “Well, yeah, technology… I mean, they brought Tupac on stage, right? We could do that. Like Mark said, we could bring back the young Devo on stage. It would be tremendous.”

It’s easy to see how the two have created so much together over the years! Their ideas naturally form on the spot. Their minds are constantly working on something. 

When asked if they thought the show in Cleveland on the May 11 would feel like a homecoming of sorts, Jerry joked, “Did Cleveland ever embrace Devo as their own? I think they kicked us out of Ohio. Even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dissed us,” he said with a laugh.

It seems now that the people of Cleveland would certainly want to claim them, though. 

But how about if they could distill a Devo concert? What should someone expect if they’ve never been to one? Without missing a beat, Mark had the concert laid out, “We’ll be dressed in old long dresses with aprons,” he said. “And we’ll be putting cherry pies in an oven, giving out some recipe tips.”

“Now we have to do that. Now we have to actually do a new encore with that,” Jerry said. 

Since this was the show they were describing, the idea of a book of Devo recipes came up. “Jerry’s a pretty good cook. We could, probably,” Mark said. 

We then circled back around the SNL performance. Since SNL alum Fred Armisen played drums for them at that show, it felt like an uncommon pairing for the band and comedian. “He played with us a few years ago,” Mark said. “It was a John Waters Festival in Oakland that he did every year or so, and we were between drummers and Fred stepped in, and if you look online, a lot of the fans all said, he sounded more like Alan than the other guys we’d been using…. He’s just a really nice guy. So, he suggested to the SNL people that, ‘Hey, I played with Devo before. Why don’t we put Devo on the bill?’ And so, he got us on the bill at the SNL thing.”

There’s also a Devo documentary that premiered recently at Sundance, directed by Chris Smith, the director of Netflix’s COVID-era binge, Tiger King. “More than a year ago,” Jerry said. But he did add that it should be available to stream in September 2025. “It’s in captivity at the moment,” Mark added. It sounded like something that took a while to finally get finished. “It was just something that we’d gone through a couple versions of it before we got to that, and then finally when it was done, it was kind of like, ‘Thank God we’re done with it.’”

Look for that this September. Early reviews are glowing. 

Always on the forefront of innovation, I had to ask about a story floating around online about Jerry and Mark using a washing machine as a rhythm track when they first started out. “Yeah, we probably did play that,” Jerry said.

“I know windshield wipers,” Mark said. “We were singing something. Jerry and I were driving out to LA to try and pass out some cassettes, demo cassettes to people that none of ’em cared about ’em. But on the way there, I remember we started singing music to the windshield wipers on the drive there.” 

One of this interviewer’s favorite Devo songs is “Come Back Jonee,” so they gave some background on that one as well. There’s another suggestion online that the lyrics were inspired by or in reference to John F Kennedy.

“I don’t think so,” Mark said.

“I didn’t know that,” Jerry said. 

“Now I’ve got to go listen to the song again,” Mark added. 

“I thought Mark was just writing about the proverbial populist every man in the fifties… Jonee was always trying to get the girl, or losing the girl, or getting in trouble.”

“Jerry and Bob (Mothersbaugh) had written some music,” Mark continued. “And we were rehearsing in one of the many basements we were rehearsed out in Akron, and I just came down and heard it and got inspired by it and just sang over top of it. And they had this song, this cool song already happening.”

Devo has always been known to do covers, as far back as the Rolling Stones’ song “Satisfaction” on their first album, and while “Come Back Jonee” isn’t, strictly speaking, a cover, it was inspired a bit by “Johnny B Goode.” However, another famous story is that when they first started out, they would often get gigs by claiming to be a cover band. One of those now-famous gigs was a Halloween show.

“It was the Halloween show at the WHK Radio Station party. And we were opening for Sun Rah,” Jerry said. 

“He was amazing,” Mark said. “Actually, that influenced me a lot when I saw him playing with his fists like a baby, on the keyboard. I was like, that’s so great. His technique was so incredible. And he was playing 25 years till the 21st century, 25 years till Century 21. He had a couple of pretty cool songs.”

“It was a chant in 1975, and he was sitting on a throne, basically on an elevated platform, like a King’s chair with his synth in front of him, taped to the arms of the chair,” Jerry added.

“That was one where we said we were a cover band and they figured out by the third song that we were not a cover band,” Jerry said, “And they started yelling at us. So, Mark went right to ‘Jocko Homo,’ and we went right into, ‘Are We Not Men?’ And that did last maybe 20 minutes or so before they came and dismantled our microphones and pushed us around. We had to escape.”

“What was great is they were all in Halloween costumes and getting angry so that we had all these angry trolls and witches and mummies throwing. It was pretty great,” Mark said, laughing. 

What a show that must have been! To think 50 years later, they would still be on tour and selling out large venues….