Writer Dave Gil de Rubio checks in with The B-52’s Fred Schneider as the band’s tour with Devo gets set for a Saturday tour stop at Grand Rapids’ Acrisure Amphitheater.
The B-52s: Fans can ‘sing and dance along and have a great time.’ (Photo/Joseph Cultice)
In the world of professional sports, the saying is no one ever beats father time.
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
The adage extends to entertainers, making the idea of farewell tours ever more ubiquitous as performers age.
And while the Cosmic De-Evolution Tour that’s paired The B-52s with Devo has been billed as a farewell tour of sorts, the subhead on the tour name reads “One Last Orbit (Maybe?),” casting the idea that, at least in the case of The B-52’s, fans might not be seeing the last of them.
It’s more about reducing the wear and tear of being on the road, according to founding member Fred Schneider. When asked if it was a matter of the band just not hopping on a bus again, Schneider scoffed at that ever having been a reality for the band.
“In 2022, I swore I’d never get on a tour bus again,” he said with a chuckle during a recent interview. “I’m not getting on a bus to go from one date to another for more than six hours.
“That’s just not my kind of life and it wasn’t any of our kinds of lives. We were careful to say to our fans that we would … still perform in special situations that don’t require all of the awful tour travel.”
Heading Back to GR: The B-52s on stage at Meijer Gardens in 2018. (Photo/Kevin Huver Photography)
Given The B-52s’ penchant for a unique sound-fusing pop-culture camp, kitsch and weird guitar tunings that have the Athens outfit coming off like the house band for a John Waters movie, Schneider said fans will still experience the usual shenanigans they’ve come to expect whenever B-52s play a show.
“What they always get, which is a real kick-ass rock show not a funny pop show,” he explained. “They can sing and dance along and have a great time. We’re the best excuse to let off steam.”
West Michigan fans will get to do that on Saturday (Sept. 19) when the tour with Devo hits Grand Rapids’ Acrisure Amphitheater. Tickets, $27.49-$138.10, for the 7 p.m. show are available online here.
A New Jersey native, Schneider never intended to be a musician. A move to Athens, Ga., was prompted by the twin desires to pursue a career in ecology while escaping the New Jersey.
“I wanted to be a conservationist and for some reason I thought taking wildlife management would have something to do with conservation — and it didn’t,” he pointed out with a laugh. “I was stuck at the forestry school for two years, where I became the hippy of the forestry school, which is ridiculous. I wore Sears polyester bell bottoms and a polyester shirt and had long hair. I looked terrible.”
EMBRACING CREATIVE WRITING, FALLING INTO MUSIC
On the brink of quitting school, Schneider switched to journalism after getting high marks from a class project. That eventually led to him to connecting with future bandmates Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland around 1976.
“Just as I was about to drop out, we had to do projects for creative writing,” Schneider said. “A friend said they were going to do a book of poetry and I thought that sounded easy. I was getting out of school, so I decided to do a book of poetry. I ended really liking what I was writing. You had to read in front of the class and that’s something I’m always nervous about doing.
“My poems were so out there that everyone sat there stone-faced except for a friend of mine who burst out laughing after each one. The poems had a really dry sense of humor. The teacher said they didn’t understand any of it, but he said he knew I was really serious so he gave me an ‘A.’ I brought some of those ideas to the band eventually.”
He added, “I fell into music and hadn’t planned on it. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to be. I was more of a writer, but I couldn’t have sold what I wrote. I brought my writing ideas and things to the band and I think that was more of my contribution,” he said.
“It turns out that I would more recite my lyrics — talk/sing — because I never really sang. I didn’t sing in grammar school hardly. I didn’t sing in high school or college at all. I didn’t sing in college until I did some basement tapes with Keith [Strickland], but I’m not really singing on those. Well, finally I took voice lessons, so I can sing. I just have my own style.”
While The B-52s have no plans to record new material, Schneider says fellow band members Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Strickland are working on their own projects. Schneider last year released “Vampire Vamp,” a Halloween song with Ursula 1000, and re-released his Christmas album “Destination Christmas.”
As for The B-52s’ longevity, he chalks it up to the equanimity practiced by all the band members.
“We have a shared sensibility in addition to having shared everything equally,” he said. “We shared writing credits, except for one or two albums, which we changed. If I’m not on a song, I would go promote whatever single was out — stuff like that. We shared royalties equally.
“We didn’t really have a leader. I wasn’t about to be told what to do by anybody and I don’t think anybody else was. We had some really great ups and some really bad downs, but we stuck together. And now Kate, Cindy and I connect more than we’ve ever done on stage and it shows.” – By Dave Gil de Rubio, Last Word Features
Copyright 2026, Spins on Music LLC
