‘We were once paid $50 to quit’: new wave heroes Devo on boos, Bowie and retiring after 50 years
In 1960s Akron, Ohio’s most famous export was the car tyre. Known as the “rubber capital of the world”, the city’s towering smokestacks would pump out the stench of burning rubber, which made the streets smell like rotten eggs.
“It was a depressing landscape,” recalls Gerald Casale. “But that’s often where innovative creativity is born. If you’re a creative person in this oppressive environment with no future you either give up or you rise up.”
Casale chose the latter. His band Devo have now arguably overtaken rubber as Akron’s most famous export. Fifty years on from their formation, they are in the middle of a triumphant farewell tour that just saw them headline at the Green Man festival, in the stunning rolling Welsh countryside – a stark contrast to the rust-belt landscape from which they came.
Speaking over Zoom in front of a custom backdrop featuring a map of the world overlaid with the word “De-Evolution”, the 75-year-old Casale says it’s “mind-boggling” that they have hit half a century. So why call it a day on touring? “Are you married?” asks Devo co-founder Mark Mothersbaugh, 73,
