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Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Mark Mothersbaugh: The Craziest Day of My Entire Career

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.72.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mark Mothersbaugh doesn't need much of an introduction. He's a composer who's worked in TV and film for almost 40 years now. And, of course, he's also the co-founder and frontman of Devo, the beloved new wave/post-punk band. The band got its start in Ohio in the early 1970s, and had hits like 1980's Whip It. And they're touring again! So we figured we'd reach out to Mothersbaugh for a segment we call The Craziest Day of my Entire Career, and boy oh boy, did he deliver! This story has it all: celebrities, disco, wild miscommunication, Andy Warhol. You should also know that there's some drug use and descriptions of violence in this segment. Mark is still scoring movies and TV shows — you can hear his music in the upcoming movie Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, which also stars former Bullseye guests Kathryn Hahn and Steve Buscemi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.

0:10.6

It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorne.

0:22.1

Next up on the show, Mark Mothers' Ball.

0:24.8

Mark Mothers' Ball doesn't need that much introduction.

0:26.8

He's a composer, who's worked in TV and film for almost four decades.

0:31.9

That includes classics like Peerie's Playhouse, Rushmore and Tico ITT's Thor Ragnarok.

0:47.4

Mother's Ball also co-founded in front of Divo, who are Divo, the beloved new wave post-bond

0:55.5

band.

1:04.3

And guess what, Divo's back.

1:05.8

They're touring the US with a handful of dates, still as fun as ever, so we figured we'd

1:10.8

reach out to Mark Mothers' Ball for a segment we call the craziest day of my entire career.

1:17.4

And wow, when we ask Mark Mothers' Ball for such a day, he delivered.

1:22.8

This story has it all, celebrities, discos, wild miscommunications.

1:28.1

There's also some drug use and descriptions of violence in this segment too, so we wanted

1:32.5

to give you a heads up about that.

1:34.5

Anyway, let's do this.

1:35.9

Mark Mothers' Ball on the craziest day of his entire career.

1:40.7

Alright, months I'm not going to get exact on this story, but I can tell you, it was 1977.

1:49.0

Divo had gone to Germany to record an album with Brian Eno and David Bowie.

2:08.8

And then when we finished, we were flying back to the US and Jerry and I stopped in New

2:16.9

York before going back to Ohio, where we lived.

2:23.1

The day I get into my hotel, a woman who is an AR person from Columbia called me up and

...

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