1977-Kate PiersonVocals, keyboards
Cindy WilsonVocals
Fred SchneiderVocals
Keith StricklandGuitar, drums
Ricky WilsonGuitar1977-1985
Kate Pierson told Q magazine that it was Keith Strickland who came up with the band's name. She explained: "Keith thought of the name. He had a dream, like a vision of a little lounge band and they all played organs and had bouffant hairdos, and someone said, 'Look, it's the B-52s.' B-52 was slang for a nosecone-shaped hairdo, named after the bomber. We thought, This is a great name: It's a number and a letter, it's really different and snappy. But now there's this plan to prolong the life of the B-52 bomber, and we're lending our name to a campaign to stop it."
In 1985, Ricky Wilson (Cindy's brother) became one of the first prominent entertainers to die of AIDS. The band was devastated and didn't work together until 1987, at which point they got back together to write songs and jam. The long grieving process helped them move forward with upbeat material, resulting in Cosmic Thing, their most successful album. They never replaced Wilson; their drummer Keith Strickland switched to guitar, and touring musicians were used for live shows.
Until 2008, their band name was rendered "B-52's". The apostrophe shouldn't be there, as it's not a possessive, but when a friend designed the logo, it was included in the design and incorporated into their name. This grammar foul was corrected with the release of their Funplex album.
They didn't use a bass guitar (played by Sara Lee of Gang of Four) until their 1989 album
Cosmic Thing.
But wait, you say.
What about "Rock Lobster"? That famous bass riff came from a Korg synthesizer.
Cindy Wilson is the only member who is not a vegetarian.
The band is from Athens, Georgia, where R.E.M., The Black Crowes and Drive-By Truckers also formed.
There is no real leader of the group, and since every member was there from the start, they are all on equal footing. Ricky Wilson was their main songwriter and handled most of the logistics.
Pierson began a long-term relationship with the artist Tim Rollins in 1981. In 2003, she began dating Monica Coleman; in 2015, the couple were married.
All male members are openly gay. Strickland came out publicly in 1992 in Q magazine.
One night in late 1976, in Athens, five nerdy friends who loved dancing - Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson, Ricky Wilson, Keith Strickland, and Fred Schneider - gathered at a Chinese restaurant. Too broke to afford a meal, they shared a tropical cocktail called a Flaming Volcano, sipping it through five straws. "The Flaming Volcano exploded into a creative conjunction," Pierson joked in an interview with Mojo magazine.
Buzzed from the drink, they headed to a friend's house, where they found some musical instruments in the basement. "We started jamming and wrote a song called 'Killer Bees,'" Pierson recalled. "That became the template for how we wrote."
It was such a blast that they decided to keep going, though Pierson insists they had no grand plans for fame. "I think Ricky had the mimosa forethought and ambition," she said. "He used to say he had a five-year plan, which was never fulfilled."
The B-52's played their first gig at a Valentine's Day party for their friends on February 14, 1977. "It was a hobby," Fred Schneider recalled to
New York Times. "We'd jammed once or twice. We didn't even have the money to buy guitar strings."
The quintet played their first proper concert at Max's Kansas City in New York later that year. The nightclub paid them $17 for their performance.
Ricky Wilson taught himself to play folk guitar when he was young from the PBS instructional series Learning Folk Guitar.
