SATB SPECIAL - JANE WIEDLIN

Summary

Podcast Summary: Something About the Beatles – SATB SPECIAL: JANE WIEDLIN

Host: Robert Rodriguez (Evergreen Podcasts)
Guest: Jane Wiedlin (The Go-Go’s)
Special Guest-Host: John Roker
Date: May 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this vibrant and candid episode, Robert Rodriguez welcomes Jane Wiedlin, guitarist and co-founder of The Go-Go’s, in a candid examination of her journey through music—with special focus on her Beatle fandom, her role as a female trailblazer in rock, and the creative journey from punk to chart-topping pop. Together with friend (and superfan) John Roker, they discuss the evolution of The Go-Go's, their enduring Beatle influence, battle for respect in a male-dominated industry, and Jane’s upcoming projects—including her tell-all memoir and a protest-themed EP.

Tone: Engaging, humorous, reflective, and insightful, brimming with personal anecdotes and music-history geekery.

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Key Discussion Points & Takeaways

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1. Jane Wiedlin’s Early Musical Influences & Beatles Fandom

• Jane’s Earliest Music Memories

  • Jane moved to LA as a child and was immersed in music early due to older siblings.
  • "I remember my brother getting the first Beatles album... At that time I didn't know there was a difference between Herman's Hermits and the Monkees compared to the Beatles." (08:00, Jane)
  • She’d crawl into the back of her family’s stereo console to learn the harmonies of Beatles songs.
  • "I even wrote them a letter and said if you ever need a female singer, I'm your girl." (09:09, Jane)

• Distinctions in Fandom

  • Jane was too young for teen mags like Tiger Beat and got most Beatles news through family records.
  • Early on, she didn’t distinguish "high art" from "bubblegum": “I just really, really, really got intensely into music at a really early age, even though I wasn’t a musician—I was a mad fan.” (08:35, Jane)

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2. From Punk to Pop: The Go-Go’s Evolution

• Musical Aspirations Bloooming from Punk

  • It wasn’t until Jane saw women playing in punk bands (mid-70s LA scene, like Suzi Quatro) that she felt music was an option:
    “It wasn’t until ’78 that we actually formed the Go-Go’s… punk was a direct line from glitter rock, which was also rebellious and super counterculture.” (10:25–11:59, Jane)

• Band Dynamics, Influence, and Songwriting Magic

  • "When Charlotte [Caffey] joined the band... it was the craziest, most magical thing ever. We'd be writing totally separate, and then we'd get together and it would magically just work." (25:29, Jane)
  • Discussing writing with others: “If you’re afraid to expose yourself, you’re not going to write anything good.” (26:14, Jane)

• On Songwriting Process

  • With little formal training, Jane credits her instinct and lack of “rules” for creative chord progressions:
    “It had a D# and a D in it, which is like forbidden, but I didn’t know any better because I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. But that’s the beauty of it.” (23:10, Jane)

• Beatles Influence on The Go-Go’s Sound

  • Even at their punkiest, the band’s songs had a pop sense reminiscent of Lennon/McCartney:
    “There was always a pop element in what we did and we weren't the only ones… like the Buzzcocks and the Ramones.” (18:52–19:16, Jane)

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3. Breaking Barriers as Women in Rock

• Industry Resistance and Gender Expectations

  • "The record business in America was so fucking misogynistic… those guys couldn’t even imagine that girls should be in a band or should have a record deal. God forbid." (31:38–32:02, Jane)
  • Even after topping charts, The Go-Go’s felt patronized, called “sellouts” by punks for signing to a label.

• The Go-Go’s Unique Achievements

  • "We should probably be clear that the Go-Go’s are the first and only all female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to get to number one—no one has broken that record." (38:48, Jane)

• Reflecting on Success

  • "The more you’re doing that [hard gigging], the more you’re like fuck, I would really like to be getting paid to do this because it's a twenty four seven occupation for years." (39:06, Jane)

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4. Creative Freedom, Band Dynamics, and Industry Myths

• Band Membership and Chemistry

  • Discussed the magic of new members (notably Gina Schock, drummer):
    "When Gina joined, that elevated us a thousand percent, that was insane." (29:55, Jane)
  • On all-women lineup: “Margo started everything going and she wanted to do all females… right from the beginning it was part of girl power.” (30:47, Jane)

• Pop vs. Punk—Sellout Stigma

  • The Go-Go’s were accused of selling out after signing a record deal; Jane calls out the hypocrisy of purist fans: “You motherfucker… You would like to be in a successful band. Punk rock didn’t want to stay underground… we wanted to change music and have other people hear it.” (32:15, Jane)

• Recording Process Anecdotes

  • On the speed of early tracks:
    "We made the producer speed up the whole record... now people try and play along and think we used weird tuning—no, the tapes are just sped up." (32:51, Jane)

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5. Cultural Shifts and the Enduring Impact of the Beatles

• Technology, Music Discovery, and Cultural Loss

  • Jane laments the loss of album art as a way to discover music:
    "I used to find music by album covers… that's a lost art now." (37:10, Jane)

• On the Unattainable Standard Set by the Beatles

  • "No one can do the Beatles except for the Beatles." (49:54, Jane)

• Empathy for the Beatles' Later Years

  • On Paul McCartney and Lennon’s mythologies:
    "Everyone's always like, 'Oh, Paul McCartney, ew, such a dick, he's so controlling.' That's like—motherfuckers, he was trying to prevent a train wreck... Don't demonize him for that." (53:07, Jane)

  • On Lennon: “He was such a hot mess… what they experienced is something a human being should not experience." (54:06, Jane)

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6. Personal Anecdotes: From Hollywood Bowls to Hall of Fame

• Milestone Performances

  • Jane’s first concert: Elton John at the Hollywood Bowl (15:17, Jane)
  • The surreal experience of headlining massive venues: “I remember playing stadiums and then seeing AC/DC there, thinking how big it was until someone reminded me, ‘You played here!’ It’s really different from the audience vs on stage.” (43:26–44:22, Jane)

• Backstage with Paul McCartney at the Rock Hall

  • "He was charming, funny, self-effacing… he seemed to know what the fuck was going on." (61:01, Jane)
  • Humorous what-if: "Can you imagine [McCartney] singing 'Our Lips Are Sealed' to you?" (61:13, John Roker/Jane)

• Go-Go’s vs. Bangles—Media Comparisons

  • On being constantly compared as the other all-female band:
    “You get to the point where you do not want to be compared with another band—it’s because they have vaginas too, you know. But let’s face it, there were only two all-girl bands that were successful in the eighties.” (61:45–62:08, Jane)

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7. Upcoming Projects & Memoir

• Jane’s Memoir – TMI: Memoirs of a Go-Go
  • "It is literally—I don't know if I've read a more TMI book… I'm not ever writing a book unless I really, really, really tell the truth." (66:58, Jane)
  • Out in November, alongside an EP titled I Protest consisting of protest songs.

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Notable Quotes

• "If you’re afraid to expose yourself, you’re not going to write anything good." (26:14, Jane Wiedlin)
• “There’s always a pop element in what we did… we, and bands like the Buzzcocks and the Ramones, had incredibly catchy pop songs at triple speed.” (19:16, Jane Wiedlin)
• "Punk rock didn’t want to stay underground… We wanted to change music and have other people hear it." (32:28, Jane Wiedlin)
• "No one can do the Beatles except for the Beatles." (49:54, Jane Wiedlin)
• "Everyone's always like 'Oh, Paul McCartney, ew, such a dick, he's so controlling.' ...Don't demonize him for that." (53:07, Jane Wiedlin)
• "We should probably be clear that the Go-Go’s are the first and only all-female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to get to number one—no one has broken that record." (38:48, Jane Wiedlin)

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Important Timestamps (MM:SS)

• 08:00 – Jane recalls early Beatles fandom and learning harmonies.
• 11:31 – The glam-to-punk transition and the role of gender in rock.
• 18:52 – Beatles’ influence on The Go-Go’s sound; pop hooks in punk context.
• 23:10 – Songwriting by instinct; breaking musical rules.
• 31:38 – Sexism in the record industry; being branded sellouts.
• 38:48 – The Go-Go’s landmark chart achievement as an all-female self-contained band.
• 43:26 – The surreal feeling of playing (and recalling) massive venues.
• 53:07 – Jane defends McCartney’s leadership in the Beatles.
• 66:58 – Jane previews her upcoming memoir and protest EP.

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Memorable Moments

• Jane’s story of writing a letter to the Beatles as a child, volunteering to sing with them (09:09, Jane)
• Hilarious confession about putting nearly every chord imaginable in her early bondage song because she didn’t know musical “rules” yet (22:04–22:59, Jane)
• Jane’s account of being upstaged by Vicki Peterson of the Bangles’ clean-living ways on tour: “…she was so horrified by us... she just hung out with our crew...” (63:20, Jane)
• The segment on the Go-Go’s success and “Hollywood Bowl amnesia”—Jane debating whether they played one or three nights, only to have to look it up (45:14–45:19)
• On seeing Paul McCartney at the Rock Hall: "He was charming, funny, self-effacing… he seemed to know what the fuck was going on." (61:01, Jane)

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers an in-depth, unfiltered look at Jane Wiedlin’s artistic journey, her reverence for the Beatles, and the untold struggles and triumphs of The Go-Go’s. Jane’s humor, honesty, and punk spirit shine through, making this an episode that both music geeks and casual fans will find engaging, relatable, and illuminating.

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If you only have a few minutes, jump to:

• 08:00–11:30 for Jane’s Beatles origin story and early music influences.
• 18:50–23:30 for lessons on songwriting, rule-breaking, and Beatles/Go-Go’s parallels.
• 38:50–41:00 for the band's unique place in music history and Jane’s thoughts on ambition/success.
• 53:00–55:00 for Jane’s take on Beatle mythology and what Paul/Lennon meant to her.

Don’t miss:

• Jane’s preview of her TMI memoir and I Protest EP.
• Candid, laugh-out-loud anecdotes about the Go-Go’s, the music business, and life in rock.

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Transcript

[Jane Wiedlin]

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[Drew Barrymore]

where are the doggo

[Jane Wiedlin]

butter

[Drew Barrymore]

thirty

[Jane Wiedlin]

six years ago we started a little

[Drew Barrymore]

punk rock band called the gojos less

[Jane Wiedlin]

than one mile away from here we were a hollywood band through and through so it is especially thrilling to be

[Drew Barrymore]

honored here tonight we were young and

[Jane Wiedlin]

we were out for fun but i think no matter how naive we were because we did think we were gonna be big rock stars i don't think we ever dreamed that we would ever play the hollywood bow

[Drew Barrymore]

let alone play

[Jane Wiedlin]

three times and my very first concert as a kid was the hollywood bowl elton john what a long strange trip it has been and continues to be cause it's not over yet people

[Robert Rodriguez]

hello

[John Roker]

and welcome to the satby special this is my conversation with jane wiedland from the go go's i had mentioned in the newsletter to subscribers a few weeks back that i had somebody from a rock and roll hall of fame band member coming to the show and that member is jane wiedland so this is something that happened because i'm friends with a guy named john roker who lives in la and he's friends with jane and i knew that being a go go's fan from way back that they were into the beatles to varying degrees and that was confirmed with this talk and i thought it'd be interesting not only just to talk to jane because she's an interesting person but to get her insights as a working professional musician who as she spells out in the show is a member of the only female rock act to hit the top of the charts with tunes that they wrote and recorded themselves so there is that nobody else has done it since the go gos did it and she wrote their first number one co wrote it with terry hall from the specials and fun boy three our lips are sealed as well as most of their debut albums she wrote or co wrote to tunes and going forward also co writer of how much more turn to you mercenary beneath the blue sky and so on and so forth as well as having a solo career and when she left the go gos in one thousand nine hundred eighty four ish and had a hit with rush hour and recorded a string of albums she has acted in films most famously playing joan of arc in bill and ted's excellent adventure she's done a ton of voiceover work as well but this year is exciting because in addition to an ep she's got coming out called i protest on some topical songs she's also got her memoir coming out in november this year called too much information tmi so you've got that to look forward to but it was great to have this talk with her squeezing it in while she was in la attending to the recording of the i protest record and while scheduled to give another interview so i was glad to get her when i did anyway it was a lot of fun to talk to jane and it was great to have john on the show he's been a friend of the show friend of mine and i look forward to having another conversation with him down the road cause he's got some stories himself but in any event i get out of the way and you can hear the sappy takeover now

[Robert Rodriguez]

i'm jane wh and we would like to thank you for our new podcast it's called john and jane a go go beetle go go and we're taking over robert rodriguez's podcast right now and

[John Roker]

my understanding is jane doesn't listen to

[Jane Wiedlin]

podcasts i don't i don't but you're

[John Roker]

pro you've done a million interviews right

[Jane Wiedlin]

i'm tired of listening to people talking

[Robert Rodriguez]

okay especially me oh my god he talks all the time we do said

[John Roker]

the artist who did an album called talk show got it that was a

[Jane Wiedlin]

long time ago in another place in

[John Roker]

time huh well get ready because that's where we're going to be going another place in time if we can i

[Robert Rodriguez]

like the past i do yeah in the eighties and seventies he had punk rock it was just these people that just were fed up and they're using their voice people kind of forget when they hear about the go go's they say oh they're that pop band and the first stage of the band the go gos were a hardcore punk rock band hardcore you were a hardcore punk rock band i have the tapes to play it i mean i have tapes of them playing the whiskey a go go and it was only three months since they had picked up their instruments and it was just like absolutely amazing these five women just going after it

[Jane Wiedlin]

okay roll it tighten it up the

[Robert Rodriguez]

end so what i'm saying is go

[John Roker]

on james the pro here want to

[Jane Wiedlin]

talk what do you want to talk

[John Roker]

about robert i want to talk about your journey through a beetle lens if we can because i think that's the kind of thing ultimately we want this to be fun let's start going back to o' connomawok and your musical background what was the earliest music you can

[Jane Wiedlin]

remember being into well i'm my whole family moved to la when i was six and i have older brothers and sisters who are already really into music so i started listening to great music really really young and i mean i remember my brother getting the first beatles album and at that time i didn't know there was a difference between like herman's hermit and the monkeys compared to the beatles and he would get so mad at me because i'd be like i love herman's hermits and the beatles anyways it's so you were accepting it

[John Roker]

all without like discriminating this is high art and this is bubblegum yeah i

[Jane Wiedlin]

mean i was a little kid but i still really really really got intensely into music at a really early age even though i wasn't a musician i was a mad fan later i we had this rumpus room and it had i don't know if people remember stereo stereo consoles which was like a piece of wooden furniture and the stereo would be inside of it the record player and stuff and i used to climb into the back of those because i was so little and then i would learn all the harmonies to every song so i knew all the harmonies to every beatles song and i even wrote them a letter and said if you ever need a female singer i'm your

[Robert Rodriguez]

girl were they still around when you wrote that letter yeah yeah and they didn't write back god damn them huh

[John Roker]

they're lost right yeah so as far as your fandom went were you like into like the teen rock press like tiger beat and stuff like that is that how you got your information no

[Jane Wiedlin]

i was too little for that at first i mean i just got my info because my older brothers and sisters were buying the records all the time i mean i don't even know how much i clocked when the beatles came to america and so stuff but i i guess i could have i don't know time is all smushy for me

[Robert Rodriguez]

now yeah well you would have been

[John Roker]

five when they did the sixty four first solomon show do you remember being a fan of the tv shows the day like the hullabaloos shindigs and stuff like that where the action is oh

[Jane Wiedlin]

yeah i couldn't i couldn't wait to be a teenager so i could go on those shows

[John Roker]

and this was before you had aspirations of making music yourself

[Jane Wiedlin]

oh yeah i didn't really have any aspirations until the punk rock scene and then all of a sudden it was okay if you were a girl to be in a band you know before then it was like you could be in a singing group but nobody no girls were really playing music the only one i remember like from high school was suzie quatro she was amazing and at that point point and in high school i was just all into glitter rock you know like bowie sparks all that stuff yeah so su du quatro was like the only one i knew of so i didn't ever really think about being able to be a musician until when i started college in seventy six and i saw all these punk bands at the mask and there was always girls in them and then i was like whoa but it wasn't till seventy eight that we actually formed the

[John Roker]

go gos so it was a susie cuatro coming along and the period of glam and then punk that sort of gave you permission this can be done i'm not shut out of this yeah

[Jane Wiedlin]

and it really honestly the people don't seem to realize it was a continuous line between glitter rock and punk because glitter rock was also incredibly rebellious parents really fucking hated it and it was like super counterculture and then all those glitter rock kids well most of them became punks like everyone i met at the very beginning had been you know a bowie fan so it all made

[Robert Rodriguez]

a lot of sense and same in england the same as the england and new york scene also is the same thing and you look at bands like new york dolls and whatnot they were absolutely outrageous to look at i mean before the air metal the exactly it

[Jane Wiedlin]

was like the connecting thread it was like dolls and whatchamacallit patti smith and devo all that stuff that was around at the very beginning was kind of the connection between glitter rock and punk

[Robert Rodriguez]

it was funny you were talking about susie quatro and robert you may also remember this there were no women out there at that time that a person

[Jane Wiedlin]

like jane i totally said that already

[Robert Rodriguez]

no no but i'm thinking about really

[John Roker]

there's nobody knew about the shags yet

[Robert Rodriguez]

no no but i'm talking about the absence of women back then it's insane

[John Roker]

it's crazy did you not listen to

[Robert Rodriguez]

my what i'm saying yes why did

[Jane Wiedlin]

you say i agree with jane but

[Robert Rodriguez]

that's why i'm saying i agree with

[Jane Wiedlin]

jane thank you all right what's next

[John Roker]

you didn't know about the shags yet and that was a little bit before

[Jane Wiedlin]

i didn't hear about the shags till

[John Roker]

way later way later yeah nobody did and fanny wasn't really a big mainstream thing at all but again presumably they were beetle fans of some sort because they were doing hey bulldog but they were sort of the outliers to that point now your own background when you went to college you were studying fashion and i would see that glamrock would have that added visual appeal to get you into it as again this gateway drug to the fashion draws you in but the music is so good too and then that leads in a direct line to punk yeah this do it yourself ethos kind of like skiffle was for the beatles generation yeah yeah i

[Jane Wiedlin]

remember at the beginning well obviously new elvis beatles are the rolling stone right the clash but but i never stopped my love of the beatles never i never really liked elvis though he was

[John Roker]

kind of weird huh yeah i could see that were you into the british invasion bands generally were you as much

[Jane Wiedlin]

a stones fan so the stones came along when i was very young and i found them incredibly terrifying little did i know that the beatles were getting up to all kinds of fucking hijinks too but they always presented this like really sweet safe look and i remember when they went to india and came back like with beards and they were acid heads and stuff and i got all scared of them then

[John Roker]

well there's

[Jane Wiedlin]

always the monkeys oh god i love the monkeys when i was little the monkeys manager got married at the catholic church that we went to and somehow we got wind of it so i walked to the church which is close to our house and i snuck in and i saw i think i saw davy jones from a distance you must be joking but it was incredibly thrilling

[Robert Rodriguez]

what were you like two years old

[Jane Wiedlin]

no when did monkeys come out sixty

[Robert Rodriguez]

six yeah so i was eight wow it's amazing amazing did you ever go

[John Roker]

to like live concerts of these bands you were into early on no not

[Jane Wiedlin]

until i was fourteen and my first concert was elton john at the hollywood pool it was the goodbye yellow brick

[Robert Rodriguez]

road tour wow with the doves piano

[Jane Wiedlin]

wow you could never do that today

[John Roker]

no so now you're in school it's a mid late seventies seventy eight all this stuff is happening in punk and you're feeling empowered to be able to do something musically yourself did you see a particular role for yourself did you immediately gravitate toward writing your own tunes or was that something that you did

[Jane Wiedlin]

out of necessity well i always been very creative and i wrote a lot of bad poetry in the past and so writing i just started doing it and it really like scratched that itch in my brain so that was probably really early on i realized that that was kind of my thing because i wasn't a good musician i mean the extent of my musical education had been going to one of those in the summer when your mom wanted to get rid of you so you went to the park and you took little classes or whatever so i took like folk guitar for a couple weeks so that was the extent of my musical background but just because i had that i got dubbed the guitar player right away so and then you know i started learning how to play guitar and billy zoom helped me and it was it was exciting i mean really basically hardly anyone was really a good musician then and that didn't matter it was more about the enthusiasm stuff very much skillful

[John Roker]

yeah for sure you're at a rebellious age where you want to sort of take on the establishment whether it's political or rock and roll rock at that point punks fueled out of this i hate pink floyd sensibility yeah did you feel that right exactly did you feel that when when you guys were making your earliest punk iteration did you feel like all the old establishment stuff had to be like wiped out of the

[Jane Wiedlin]

way yeah no duh i mean it was like we would see like people with long hair and we'd be all like dirty hips yeah it was a huge change and basically we slammed the door on the past and this was all the present and the future and it was everything i mean it was my entire identity at the time and

[Robert Rodriguez]

it still is in way yeah and

[Jane Wiedlin]

i like to think that i still have the punk rocker in me because i've always kind of been an outlier and okay you already used that word earlier i always thought outlier was pronounced outlier someone corrected me and i was so embarrassed outlier outlier okay uh huh

[John Roker]

so then coming from this punk background and i know there's a lot of people that their first exposure to the go go's was our lips are sealed as far as a national thing outside of la thing goes it's very very pop it's catchy it's hooky it's harmony laden what was the turning point that pushed you guys in that direction because i would think especially somebody who's such a fan of the beatles and if you look at lennon mccartney as the gold standard of writing how did you work up the fortitude it's like i can do this i can compete on that level from punk that seems like an incredible leap well i mean i

[Jane Wiedlin]

don't think any of us who love the beatles ever gave up our love of the beatles and from the beginning my influences and i think even the whole band of us it was like the buzzcocks and the ramones where you had these incredibly catchy pop songs but played at like triple speed like there was always a pop element in what we did and we weren't the only

[Robert Rodriguez]

ones if you hear the songs like lust for love the stuff that made the first record and the second record they're just the same song just really fast right

[John Roker]

full disclosure the only fan club i ever belonged to in my life was the go gos whoa

[Jane Wiedlin]

oh that's nuts huh i got on the

[John Roker]

mailing list that i remember when you went solo and your first album came out getting a postcard about it so i sell my shirt i never wore it it's it's packed away but yeah that's how big a fan i was but i remember the first time like cable you guys did that show i think it was at hollywood high or something totally go go's palace fruities yeah yeah okay the song that jumped out at me because obviously i had the album by that time was london boy which i thought we got that damn yeah you did and i found out later on you co wrote it with the guy from the germs but yeah

[Jane Wiedlin]

down below that was the first song

[John Roker]

i ever wrote really yeah that song

[Drew Barrymore]

here sam

[Jane Wiedlin]

thank you i remember i didn't know about song structure and anything and like i thought like the more chords you put in a song the better so that was when i wrote that that song fun with ropes about bondage and it has like almost every chord in it it is insane it has like twelve chords in

[Robert Rodriguez]

i remember

[John Roker]

reading a quote from kathy talking about our lips are sealed and you use the chord progression there that never would have occurred to her who was a seasoned guitar player by that time yeah

[Jane Wiedlin]

because it had a d sharp and a d in it which is like forbidden but i didn't know any better because i didn't know what the fuck

[Robert Rodriguez]

i was doing but that's the beauty of it you find a lot of people that go to music schools are not as experimental because i go i can't do that i go why can't you do that yeah you can't know

[John Roker]

the rules you didn't know you were breaking them you're making up as you go which is it's beautiful it reminded me of when there was an all star band and they had eric harmon in it and the band is learning go all the way and they're like jesus christ there's a chord change for every line in the song for every word in the lyric it was like incredibly complex i wonder if that was

[Robert Rodriguez]

an early song for him song i don't know that raspberries go all the way you'll know it you'll know yeah it's like that i call it bitch

[John Roker]

and rock it's got a bit of please please me in it that come on come on come on yeah yeah i know you know you have to know it if you listen to am

[Robert Rodriguez]

radio you know very good voice i like it oh thanks paul

[Jane Wiedlin]

we'll have

[John Roker]

to do a separate show on that later on so london boy was your first song i did not know that that's cool i remember thinking this is such a great track why don't they do it in the studio but i guess it would have been old for you by that time you got new

[Jane Wiedlin]

stuff yeah i guess we didn't like it that much i don't remember there's this one fan we have i actually know her name but i can't remember because i have brain fog she for decades she would come to like dozens of concerts and she always had this giant sign play london boys and we

[Robert Rodriguez]

never did sorry sorry huh so did

[John Roker]

you find it once you join up with these girls you start out with belinda as this punk band and then you bring in charlotte at some point and the folklore with the go go's is she was the one that knew how to plug a guitar into an amp and she had a musicality and had been experienced was a little bit older than you did you find the act of collaboration a really easy thing with like minded girls or was the kind of challenge like well i have my own ideas and i don't really want to go in the direction you want to take this how did that work out writing with other people well

[Jane Wiedlin]

when charlotte joined the band i don't know how or when or why we started writing together but it was like the crazy most magical thing ever like we would be writing totally separate like she'd come up with a musical thing and i had a lyric idea and then we get together and it would magically just work together it was really crazy but i do think there is element to magic in songwriting that none of us understand it's a communication yeah

[Robert Rodriguez]

and it's a marriage and it's a relationship and it's a very personal relationship

[John Roker]

it's incredibly intimate to basically let all your armor down to expose yourself that's

[Jane Wiedlin]

interesting that you say that because some people you just can't write with just because that exact thing if you're afraid to expose yourself you're not going to write anything good and yeah that happened to me a lot in you know as time went on when you try and write with someone else you know sometimes it worked but sometimes it was

[Robert Rodriguez]

just awkward it's kind of like therapy in a way too or being able to kind of express your feelings being

[Jane Wiedlin]

vulnerable telling the truth yeah yeah absolutely

[John Roker]

in a way that you couldn't outside of music maybe reveal your inner self you can do it because it's just a song but really you're tipping your

[Jane Wiedlin]

hand that's very absolutely true like i was writing songs about bondage and cutting and all this stuff and no one ever was like oh that's what she's into it was like shit goes right over people's head when you write songs

[Robert Rodriguez]

it's crazy and especially like in talk show there's these insanely personal songs that you're writing that are so sad you

[Jane Wiedlin]

know i was so sad then i

[Robert Rodriguez]

mean it's just like well big sad

[John Roker]

sack it sounds like you're teeing up forget that day oh yeah that's something that as a fan my understanding was what was made public at the time was that was a very personal song to you that you wanted to take the lead on and it didn't happen and that was what prompted your wanting to leave the band no no there

[Jane Wiedlin]

was like a huge list i wasn't going to quit the band over one song but there was just a lot going on like you know there was this war about the publishing and then there was like which direction the band should go and what else was i

[Robert Rodriguez]

unhappy with what direction did they want to go to ask i don't remember reggae infused yeah well

[John Roker]

that was already an issue early on with your first bass player about moving yourself further from punk and going more pop that was margot's issue if i'm correct yeah and

[Jane Wiedlin]

margot did she was still the punkiest of us as we kind of took the journey down more pop but i mean what happened was she got really sick before we had this four nights at the whiskey thing two shows a night and that was like the biggest thing that ever happened to us and like what the fuck were we supposed to do cancel that we couldn't so that's when we searched around and we found kathy and and it was kind of like the same go go's lore that she didn't know how to play bass but she was like oh i could play bass because she was a guitar player so she figured well two less strings it's gotta be easier so she came in and we liked what she was doing so much that you know it was just like get rid

[Robert Rodriguez]

of margot cocaine helped on that one

[Jane Wiedlin]

too well yeah well yeah we she started three days before that the whiskey run so she basically like with the help of modern chemist just stayed up for three days and learned everything now

[Robert Rodriguez]

that's a commitment robert that i love

[John Roker]

hell yeah yes what i'm wondering is on your end did it feel like yes this is it you look at the beetle lore it's like when they got ringo seated it's like all of a sudden yes this is it this is what we've been chasing all this time was it something similar with you guys once kathy came in i don't

[Jane Wiedlin]

remember feeling that way but i do remember being very impressed with her musicianship

[Robert Rodriguez]

it happened with gina when gina joined

[Jane Wiedlin]

her oh yeah that was a huge thing when gina joined that elevated us like a thousand percent that was insane

[Robert Rodriguez]

when she joined and that's an amazing feeling when when you're practicing you had this new person and go oh my god we sound great yeah yeah yeah it's like oh it's clicking and the thing about it too robert i'm gonna stop for a second is just how people meet and it just it seems like oh my god like john and paul meeting or her and margot and belinda in the scene like she could have met any she got met with the guy band for gosh sake see i mean like really like it's just weird kismet magic that's what it is

[John Roker]

you guys didn't start out per se to have an all girl band did you or it just worked out that

[Jane Wiedlin]

way margo started everything going and she wanted to do all females and the thing was that at that point like every dude had a band or multiple bands there were very few people left there already weren't in bands so it was kind of natural like you had this huge group of people not being represented and they were all just just waiting so yeah right from the beginning it was part of girl power it

[Robert Rodriguez]

was insane the female presence in the punk rock scene in new york in london los angeles san francisco and that's what i love about it yeah to

[John Roker]

say like they were ahead of the curve in britain as far as that goes when you had bands like the slits and eventually sushi and the banshees that they were at least on the periphery and their moment came a lot easier than seemed to in america absolutely

[Jane Wiedlin]

both i mean the record business in america was so fucking misogynistic those guys couldn't even imagine that girls should be in a band or should have a record deal god forbid did you find

[John Roker]

a lot of that condescension when you guys even after you proved yourself had your first hit that you were still being patronized oh yeah of course and

[Jane Wiedlin]

then the blowback from the punk scene was huge when we got our record deal even though it was with a tiny label for no money huh you

[John Roker]

guys were branded sellouts oh yeah everyone

[Jane Wiedlin]

that gets anywhere is branded to sell out and then i always want to say to them you motherfucker you you seriously just want to play in your bedroom your whole life you you would like to be in a successful band

[Robert Rodriguez]

but that that's the whole thing though robert it's just like punk rock didn't they didn't want to stay underground we wanted to change music and have other people hear it i'd rather hear the go gos on the radio than any like journey and i'm proud of them i'm a proud papa and i love when that record came out but when they record the record tell the story and record the record is too slow

[Jane Wiedlin]

yeah so we were used to playing all those songs live at like breakneck speed and when we recorded the whole record and then we sat down for our listening party and we were like oh shocked appalled crying because it felt so slow so we made the producer speed up the whole record which in those days you just speed up the tape and so like people try and play along to that record and they're like wow the go go's use such weird tuning it was like no you don't understand it just because the tape

[Robert Rodriguez]

is faster when they came though but you still had a punk following though in that scene bands were coming up it was interesting like the bands that were supposed to be big were the weirdos yeah the screamers screamers and the dickies i mean the dickies were ruthless they wanted to be so big and

[Jane Wiedlin]

they got a record deal with like

[Robert Rodriguez]

a big label yeah

[John Roker]

this episode of something about the beatles is sponsored by distrokid distrokid is a service that distributes music into the streaming platforms and also collects your royalty payments it enables you to share with collaborators it also has a feature that will polish up your recordings called mixia basically it is a way to get your best foot forward out there before a listening audience making your music shine and get it into all the proper channels and make sure you get paid for your work as a special offer to listeners of something about the beatles and i know there are many who are musicians you could take advantage of this thirty percent off their first year subscription by going to distrokid dot com that's d i s t r o k i d dot com vip satb good for thirty percent off your first year of subscribing to distrokid so check it out if you are music makers and artists out there and make your music shine the distrokid app is available go to the app or play store to download it this

[Drew Barrymore]

episode is brought to you by state farm having insurance isn't the same as having state farm it's like thinking your crush messaged you back but it's just

[Jane Wiedlin]

your roommate asking for rent you wouldn't

[Drew Barrymore]

settle for a disappointing dm so don't settle for just any insurance when it comes to getting the help you need state farm is a real deal like a good neighbor state farm is there

[Robert Rodriguez]

i was telling jane there was this there's a magazine called maximum rock and roll and i remember like when green day got signed to warner brothers and they were saying you know fuck them and blah blah blah blah blah i said no fuck you you know what i mean ramones were on the big rocker label blondie patty smith like it doesn't mean you have to be in the closet right being on a big record label it's bad for the artist you know i mean but yeah it's good for us because you get to go in boise idaho and find that record you know that will save your life you know like she was like talking before like seeing the iggy pop record at a record store and just buying it because of the album cover

[Jane Wiedlin]

yeah that's how i used to find my music by the album covers and

[Robert Rodriguez]

that to me that's a lost art now too unfortunately or going to a video store like going oh that's an interesting looking movie yeah you know what is that and you take it you take it home that's how you learn about something except for like amazon recommends or if you like this yeah so there's these weird things that technology advances but then there's so many things that we lose in ourselves and our culture and our souls yes it's really weird like you don't like i don't know anyone's phone number anymore i know i only know my i haven't worn a

[Jane Wiedlin]

watch in years i would be in so much trouble if something ever happened to me like nobody would able to find anyone related to

[John Roker]

well it's interesting talking about labels and certainly you guys benefited being on irs because next thing you know you're on tour with the police who's the hottest band in the world at that time because of the copeland's right what would your ambitions as a band with punk roots and being big beatle fans and suddenly writing these great pop tunes did you set an ambition for yourself like we wanted to be you know beatles wanted to be bigger than elvis what was your end goal and do you feel that you met it because certainly you were the biggest all female male band ever to that point and opened the door for other acts that followed by normalizing what should have been normal all along we

[Jane Wiedlin]

should probably be clear that the go gos are the first and only all female band that wrote their own music and played their own instruments to get to number one no one has broken

[Robert Rodriguez]

that record not even the shags they tried or their dad tried god bless

[Jane Wiedlin]

them yeah so you know ambitions the more you go on the more you're like sweating and crying and crawling the gigs after staying up all night and stuff the more you're doing that the more you're like fuck i would really like to be getting paid to do this because it's a twenty four seven occupation for years and years and years of your life i mean it's not unreasonable to think like i hope i get successful someday and like i said before there's no fucking way that any musician is like i don't want to

[Robert Rodriguez]

be successful jane when you were in the depot the go go's you know playing the whiskey and the mask and all that what job did you have

[Jane Wiedlin]

oh i worked in a sweatshop downtown i was like a pattern maker so i don't know if people know what patterns are but it's the thing that you make out of cardboard and then you use it to cut the fabric to make the clothes so yeah that was my job i mean i went to la trade tech which is a trade technical college and i studied the fashion design industry so i learned all the different aspects of it because for a long time that's what i wanted to be i wanted to like create clothes but then of course i joined the go gos and that that old dream just went out the window like

[Robert Rodriguez]

the next day did you think at that time that this is a permanent even though at that time there wasn't a girl band that got as big as you guys eventually did did you think there was actually a future or was it just a thing like this scene's gonna last forever and we could just play the whiskey go go yeah for the rest of our lives and we'll just have fun like a little playground in a way with billy zoom and tamia the planning and all these people like it's just like a big playground and then this is it yeah

[Jane Wiedlin]

no i mean for a long time i don't remember ever thinking oh we want to be as big as the beatles or something like that i mean i was just really happy because i was being creative and being a band like entrenched you even further into the whole punk society because everyone was in a band so i was just really proud really happy and just really turned on about making music did you ever

[Robert Rodriguez]

feel competition between other bands when you guys got big like at that time were there type of classes i am

[Jane Wiedlin]

not sure what you mean well like

[Robert Rodriguez]

the weirdos not liking x or i mean was everyone that supportive in your memory of each other you know i

[Jane Wiedlin]

was also a rabid fan so like i was obsessed with x the weirdos the screamers i mean by far those were the best bands in the la scene and the idea that they never none of them really got anywhere just still fucking kills me because they were so good but it was hard back then i mean the mainstream and the record companies they had no interest no interest the dickies were like the only ones that got a real record deal and i mean they were kind of a joke band i mean they were great musicians but their songs were all

[Robert Rodriguez]

super funny i got stuck in the pagoda with trisha toyota how dare you say there's nothing serious about that or plug

[John Roker]

playing at breakneck speed didn't seem to be an impediment to their career in terms of the records they got to put out i mean all of them were fast everything i ever heard which i thought was great you hear the sonic boom at the end and

[Robert Rodriguez]

it's funny like during that time of the seventies this mellow man and fast was bad do you know what i mean it's so funny but you think it'd be good because everyone was on cocaine

[John Roker]

it sounds normal tempo yeah so when you guys were having your success and you're going on this journey where nobody knows what the end point is going to be and you're just like riding this rocket do you remember having any thoughts of this is what it feels like to be the beatles being this big and getting this twenty four seven attention and working nonstop what was it like being in the eye of

[Jane Wiedlin]

the storm well i know that you know the police really broke our ban when we got to open for them like that's when everything exploded and in fact our record passed there's open the chart which they were very good natured about thank dog but shoot i forgot my thought oh i know what it was so we were playing all these stadiums so many people and i remember one year like eighty four or something going to see acdc at this insanely huge stadium and i was at fuck look how fucking big this place is oh my god this is crazy and then someone's like oh you played that place i was like whoa really because it's really different being the audience and being on stage i mean being on stage you can see like you know four rows and then it's all just

[Robert Rodriguez]

black yeah right i don't understand how that feels of being around that many people it just seems so surreal like this is not real i never thought

[Jane Wiedlin]

about it all these people were staring at me like if i had done that i couldn't have played yeah i remember kind of a lot of times just like focusing on one person that was having a lot of fun a

[Robert Rodriguez]

good looking person

[Jane Wiedlin]

that's you that's what you would have done but we were

[Robert Rodriguez]

joking i found this gogo's t shirt recently in the bins at goodwill and it was gogo's play at the hollywood bowl three nights with the elliot philharmonic and jay goes we didn't play three nights i said yes you did and she goes no and like we played one i know and we she played three nights and then you had to

[Jane Wiedlin]

look it up and then i still didn't believe it but then finally i believed it but i have no recollection

[Robert Rodriguez]

because that's a big thing yeah three

[John Roker]

nights well the thing i'm wondering you guys played with a philharmonic yeah what

[Jane Wiedlin]

was that like a couple of times you know they had their own thing going on behind us and i just like ignored it because it was too distracting and i've never heard any of those shows so i don't even know what they sound like i did and

[Robert Rodriguez]

they sounded incredible like orchestrated version of these songs you can go on youtube and see some of it as long as people aren't singing along you can hear it and it's stunning they did b fifty two s psychedelic furs and the go gos and then that should have been alive at the hollywood moment and the hollywood people should have really thought it's a once a lifetime thing let's record it yeah guess what they

[John Roker]

didn't it's not recorded that's insane i know oh geez tape's not that expensive

[Robert Rodriguez]

is it it's like the beatles carnegie hall like i'd love to hear that you know because that washington show is a punk rock they're just going for it like it's the first show oh

[Jane Wiedlin]

my god something about when we play carnage ge hall they had like i think it was underground like the dressing rooms and stuff and there was in the hallway there was this really small cage with a tiger in it and a live tiger and we're like what

[John Roker]

the fuck do you sing beethoven is

[Robert Rodriguez]

lying to him no it's a health reference oh okay which i am going to defend that movie as the best

[John Roker]

beatle movie it's a ton of fun

[Robert Rodriguez]

it's so beautiful to look at when i saw hard day's night when i was a kid i didn't understand what they were saying because of their accents because of the accents i couldn't i go i i like it i don't know what they're saying help is like pop art before batman pows i mean it's a beautiful film and it's hilarious and it's at the time but you know we all have sense of humor right robert we do have sense of

[John Roker]

humor and that's the thing that people who want to cancel for being so colonial and degrading to minorities are missing the point it was a satire well it was missing the satire of james bond films that were doing that very thing yeah so give the beatles a little bit of credit and dick lester for not being complete idiots and races

[Robert Rodriguez]

no yeah i mean i don't know what's your favorite beatles film i don't

[Jane Wiedlin]

know probably hardest night really okay maybe yeah i love it i mean i hated fucking yellow submarine i'm not a

[Robert Rodriguez]

yellow submarine guy either i don't like

[John Roker]

it i learned to love it yeah there's way more going on in that movie i could see where if your frame of reference is something else you had the stupid beetle cartoons at the time and everything else going on give it another chance and maybe john did you listen to the two shows i did with the guys who did the

[Robert Rodriguez]

book oh my god yes yeah okay

[John Roker]

you can attest then there's way more going on and give those guys credit

[Robert Rodriguez]

for beautiful saying i mean they were hand drawing that stuff oh wow it's insane what i would like to do is i would like to take out the voices and use a beetle like a voice a real voices and replace the dialog then i'll consider i'm gonna do it's a ringo is it done like that it's to me it's just

[Jane Wiedlin]

like oh what about that bee gees thing with whatchamacallit pepper yikes that's stigwood yeah oh god i remember try to get another grease having that record and

[Robert Rodriguez]

trying really hard everyone had that record yeah it was every see back in the day they had those cutout bins and that's where i got the sex pistols and are we not men you know all the great and the iggy pop record they'd always be in the cutout bins and it would be sergeant pepper like just billions of them like going it returned triple platinum yeah it just it's like it's insane that they no one can do the beatles except for the beatles yeah well did you

[John Roker]

ever hear speaking of cutout bins in that era all this in world war

[Robert Rodriguez]

two oh i like that i have

[John Roker]

that peter gabriel singing strawberry fields come

[Jane Wiedlin]

on yeah actually that sounds great yeah

[Robert Rodriguez]

okay i'm good can we talk about movies and i have a question for you there's four biopics coming out that sam's doing my concern is i was watching the new beautiful movie hail mary and i saw the michael jackson movie trailer i'm like going there's an elf in the room that they're not going to address in that one robert you know what i mean like okay i want to know because the beatles are so completely so in control of their story their narrative do you have any hope that there maybe be something something that would kind of wartz null type

[John Roker]

of thing i do have hope because sam mendes is not an idiot and i take it for granted he knows what he's doing because it's a thankless job something so well loved and so well known to take on four projects like this you can't take away this guy's ambition and look at the actors that have signed up oh yeah yeah these are all top notch people so i have high hopes for this there's too many idiotic beatle fans that are like judging it like it's a beatles lookalike contest right they don't even look like them that that's stupid get that thought out of your head it's like writing a historical fiction novel where there's more essence of truth you can get to by fictionalizing some things combining characters and all that stuff to get to the heart of something these aren't documentaries and even documentaries are skewed by the perspective and editorial decisions made by the guy making them even get back exactly jane did you see get back yes

[Robert Rodriguez]

and i liked it i know but i really did you relate to it

[Jane Wiedlin]

probably not i can't relate to things beatles ask it's like oh i relate to god if there was a god i mean it's too much the distance between me and them is just oh

[Robert Rodriguez]

my god i remember seeing that i go god their hair is beautiful yeah you know it's so beautiful but see

[John Roker]

a lot of people i know that watched it that didn't you know maybe the difference is you're not you know you guys operate on a level akin to the beatles and had that kind of adulation and stuff and non stop activity but it's like if you've ever been in a band here's the beatles and it's like we've had exactly that scenario happening right now where you're snipping at each other or it's boredom where you're just goofing around so it's like wow some things are universal except it's

[Jane Wiedlin]

the beatles yeah i had some skewed beliefs that i have changed lately because of you know of things that have come out and the first thing was everyone's always like oh paul mccartney ew such a dick he's so controlling that's like motherfuckers he was trying to prevent a train wreck he there was nobody to take control and make things work so they could continue to make music exactly so he fucking stepped up to fucking don't demonize him for that so

[Robert Rodriguez]

it wouldn't have been in happy road

[Jane Wiedlin]

i know i was going to say broken abuse before then if someone hadn't taken the fucking steering wheel so there's

[Robert Rodriguez]

that and then he loved that band

[Jane Wiedlin]

yeah yeah and then other thing like lennon oh my god i mean i read about how bad it got with him but i mean of course they worshiped john lennon but he was such

[Robert Rodriguez]

a hot mess how can you not be say more there's there's there's no therapy yeah these guys are in the eye of the storm bam bam bam bam bam a sudden what they experience is something a human being should not experience and especially their babies my god they're just little babies and they're in sodom gomorrah and they're seen like and everything's expected like everything's normal right uh huh yeah i have no emotional baggage from when i was raised or you know i mean it's just like i can't believe they're not serial killers i mean for what they've gone through it blows my mind and so i am happy that they knew when to leave seven years you know or have it it's time for us to go and they did drag out chloe or the stones where they're in embarrassment sorry i love that you know the rolling stones with the cockroaches or you know that whatever they're coming out with i'm glad that we're in a universe where we they still make records but they should have left after some girls and bowie should have left after scary monsters it's a fact look it up well that's

[John Roker]

an argument to be made another argument might be this is how badly they needed brian oh for sure he was the firewall he was the one that kept egos in check kept them productive kept them happy they never could replace him and suddenly the firewall was gone

[Robert Rodriguez]

you have a homosexual in the time of england a self hating self loathing homosexual once again who had a drug problem who liked being you know beaten up and all that who is totally in love with john lennon and probably just felt so inadequate and just so alone and that breaks my heart too but there would not have been the beatles without brian so all those anti gay people out there guess what they don't like the beatles what's that there's

[John Roker]

a book about all the english gay managers of the sixties because there was a lot of them and i'm trying to think the velvet revolution are you familiar with that book yeah there's a

[Robert Rodriguez]

lot there's the guy from the who right was the guy from the whole

[John Roker]

trying to think about giorgio gomelski stigwood yes yes yes yes so yeah name

[Robert Rodriguez]

that game manager robert rodriguez's fetal jeopardy

[Jane Wiedlin]

but that makes sense because here you have these groups of young really beautiful young men that are super talented and blah blah blah like it kind of makes sense that managers wouldn't be gay they should have been women too but that would have been impossible i have

[Robert Rodriguez]

a trivia question for robert which beatle hated punk rock george very good oh

[John Roker]

that's sad it's really sad it's too bad that he didn't really rock too much once the beatles split because he was a superb rockabilly guitarist and this is jane i was going to ask you did you ever hear the star club album no i have it's that

[Robert Rodriguez]

really crappy nineteen sixty two recording it sounds it's like punk rock but it's on a cassette tape oh my god it's amazing

[Drew Barrymore]

sam

[Jane Wiedlin]

i don't think i

[John Roker]

have heard that oh john you got to play it for her because i will seventy seven the height of punk this album comes out of the beatles the ad line was the beatles as your grandmother wouldn't have liked them and it's like it totally aligns with the energy that was coming out of the punk scene at that time only it's the beatles so not only they playing these breakneck dickies tempos like player i'm gonna sit right down and cry over you player that once this call is done it will rock her world and it's the beatles so you got harmonies and you got great rockabilly guitar and all that stuff it's like jesus if they could have put that in a bottle or had them revisit it at some point you know they love that stuff john does his rock and roll album but it's kind of yes i

[Robert Rodriguez]

know i want to take those saxophones robert and destroy them well then you're

[John Roker]

aligned with sean he hates saxophone yeah but even when paul did the russian thing at least that had some some grit to it or run double run do you like that don't you yeah

[Robert Rodriguez]

yeah yeah yeah

[John Roker]

i'd love to push okay let's hear it when and where

[Jane Wiedlin]

it was twenty twenty one and the go gos were getting inducted into the rock hall of fame and somehow the foo fighters had convinced paul mccartney to be the person you know that did the speech about them it was fucking nuts i'm like wait how did they get him well we got drew barrymore who was fantastic she stole the show actually she was really great but so he's like standing around backstage and of course all fidel is like diddlee doodle dee dee dee surround him as all the stage oh yeah he's exactly what you think he would be he was charming he was funny he was self effacing and like charlotte got to tell her story how she saw the beatles at dodgers stadium and you couldn't hear the music because of the screaming and i think her ticket was dollar four

[Robert Rodriguez]

and he said oh you're the one that was at that show he did

[Jane Wiedlin]

say that yeah so he was great i mean i think we stayed with him for like a minute because you're like oh my god we can't bore

[Robert Rodriguez]

him so we talked he knew who

[Jane Wiedlin]

you were well we were getting inducted

[Robert Rodriguez]

in a i know but he knew

[Jane Wiedlin]

who you were oh my god he

[Robert Rodriguez]

knew heard your music no he did

[Jane Wiedlin]

seem yeah i mean he seemed to know what the fuck was going on i mean he's you know obviously very smart and he's still very lucid he

[Robert Rodriguez]

is it would have been weird to

[John Roker]

hear him singing our lips are sealed

[Jane Wiedlin]

to you oh jesus i would die

[Robert Rodriguez]

jane goes hey paul i have a favorite beatles song what's your favorite go

[Jane Wiedlin]

go song oh can you imagine he'd be like i gotta go eternal flame oh okay so sometimes not so much these days because no one knows who i am anymore but sometimes i used to walk down the street and people would do lock lock and ejection

[Drew Barrymore]

there

[Robert Rodriguez]

you go that's racist oh well no

[Jane Wiedlin]

and i mean the thing is the bangles are or were or are really great like we're way better singers than us and like that's but you get to the point where you do not want to be compared with another band it's because they have vaginas too you know but let's face it there was only two all girl bands that were being successful in the eighties but they

[Robert Rodriguez]

were saying like when the bangs first started they kept on calling it the new go go's you know i mean they kept on saying that which is not their fault no it's not because it's lazy journalism right and they do it all the time it's like you know riot girl let's all scoop all these girls in like why can't they be in the other grunge area with all the other boys in the same playpen it just makes sense that's punk rock it's everyone i don't think the

[Jane Wiedlin]

bengals ever did an interview where someone didn't bring up the go goes i cannot i mean if it had been me i would have lost my mind i would have totally like murdered the

[Robert Rodriguez]

go but you guys got mentioned about the runaways though so yeah so runaways

[Jane Wiedlin]

are a different day a different well

[Robert Rodriguez]

they were yeah it's a whole it's a whole different kettle of fish yeah

[Jane Wiedlin]

but okay so we need to wrap this up because i have another interview at eleven thirtieth okay i was just

[John Roker]

going to mention that vicky sat in with you guys on a tour for some dates so at least she got to experience being a go go after probably being having that thrown in her face for years and years yeah definitely

[Jane Wiedlin]

we're talking about vicky peterson not vicki blue right because we've segued from runaways back to bangalore yes charlotte was pregnant and vicki stepped in she's an amazing musician and now we're very good friends at the time though the bengals were like pretty good there wasn't a lot of sex or drugs or anything i mean that was the opposite of us we were just so fucked up all the time and just living for the party and she was so horrified by us that whole tour she just hung out with our crew and i didn't even get to know her then but then like this this past year we become friends she's fucking great i love

[Robert Rodriguez]

that they're terrified they're such a proper it was yeah that's that's so funny because they are a punk rock band still are i'm happy to be you oh sorry no the bangs were always just like a psychedelic little you know that type of band and all that

[Jane Wiedlin]

i can see what i'm looking at

[John Roker]

what vicki and john oh yeah if

[Jane Wiedlin]

you're thinking times are bad and your feelings have all been sad well then

[Drew Barrymore]

come to me maybe now you can come to me and give it another you know it's hard to see a change but i've been working on it you know it's nice to see the same but i've been hanging morning if

[Jane Wiedlin]

you're feeling down and out and you're thinking you can't hold out baby come

[Drew Barrymore]

to me

[Jane Wiedlin]

so we did this i did this gig last year in wisconsin to raise money for kids with epilepsy and vicki and john were there and we literally like we all the girls there fifteen female musicians and we were all hung out constantly like a pack so we're in this big dressing room together and i put this big sign on the door no boys allowed and john was literally the only boy that was allowed to hang out with us because he's so awesome out my window

[John Roker]

in the street the shadow falls on deserted town

[Robert Rodriguez]

where the people used to

[John Roker]

meet now but never when the sun goes down

[Jane Wiedlin]

can anybody see

[Robert Rodriguez]

what's going

[Jane Wiedlin]

on cause everybody know was the right

[John Roker]

from wrong

[Jane Wiedlin]

oh we could change it now

[Robert Rodriguez]

he is awesome she has a book coming out oh yeah yeah let's

[John Roker]

talk about that it's called quickly it's

[Jane Wiedlin]

called tmi memoirs of a gogo it is literally i don't know if i've read a more tmi book like maybe the dirt on motley crue but that probably has more but it's really like bare all because i was always like i'm not ever writing a book unless i really really really tell the truth so that's coming out in november i also have an ep called i protest it's all protest songs that's coming out probably same time as the book i hope everyone will check those things out i would appreciate it bye and now last but not least the iconic jane wheedlen a gee whiz

[Drew Barrymore]

well we've been

[Jane Wiedlin]

at it for forty three years so far go figure anyways in this millennium i don't think anyone has had more of an impact on our band's career or legacy than the director alison jesus christ alison elwood who created our documentary the go gos she really understood us and introduced the world to a band you know that really was kind of maybe fading away or whatever and then

[Drew Barrymore]

she brought it all right back and

[Jane Wiedlin]

we're so grateful to her but the people we're most grateful to of all are the fans who have been with

[Drew Barrymore]

us for over four decades

[Jane Wiedlin]

and they keep coming back we love you guys we wish be anything without you and thank you so much for this honor it's just unbelievable head explosion

[John Roker]

something about the beatles created and hosted by robert rodriguez executive producer rick way title song performed by the corgis something about the beatles is an evergreen podcast

[Drew Barrymore]

hello everyone i'm drew barrymore and i'm here to induct the go go's into the rock and roll hall of fame this is such an honor and honestly it was really easy to do because the go go's had been in my personal hall of fame since i was six years old in fact if you told tiny me that i'd be up here introducing my heroes into the most notable rock club in human history i would say well i will do my best to honor these women do you remember the first record that you ever got if you do shout it out to me you know what mine was it was beauty and the beat it was my very first record beauty and the beat blew the doors of my life off it opened me up to a whole new dimension i dropped the needle and i felt instantly connected to the punk pulse of this record it sounded like pure possibility it rattled up my walls and straight through to my heart i spent hours staring at that cover and the backside all of them in the bathtub the coolest girls in the world taking a spa day in cool girl heaven it was always a party for guys for so long but these girls girls they were crashing it i sang along to this town and i felt invited to the party and i loved that these girls were from my hometown i was a west hollywood kid and the go go's were born out of la punk and they played their first show at mask a club in the basement of the pussycat oh yeah if you were in la in the seventies you know what the pussycat is it's an adult theater and it was just a stone's throw away from my childhood bedroom and it was in that bedroom that i wore that record out and it took one album and i was hooked i was gaga for the go gos and damn their outfits god they were incredible i mean take one look at me in the eighties you'll see where i got my inspiration yes and imagine me belinda carlisle when you're kind of dressed like a little mini belinda carlisle that was me in nineteen eighty four i was just nine years old looking at my hero and just last night i danced with my nine year old daughter olive and her sister frankie to we got the beat and i felt like my whole life came full circle knowing that i was coming here they changed my life they made me believe even things i didn't think were possible and tonight we're going to show them how they change the world forty years of making music countless world tours selling out eight shows at the whiskey playing the bowl the garden getting tanked and playing snl for sixty million opening for the stones influencing so many kick ass bands to come and that's just a tiny sampler of this band's legacy and it doesn't even touch what what they muscled through in their wild chapters and trust me i know a thing or two about wild chapters i always thought the go go's was such a perfect name for that band so full of kinetic energy it fits their music and their spirit and mind too and you know what you always have to just go for it so i looked up the word go in the dictionary and there are so many definitions to move on a course to begin an action or a motion my my favorite definition of the word go was to proceed without delay in an often thoughtless and reckless manner now my childhood fantasy is fulfilled but it isn't about me this is as true blue of a love letter it is my privilege to induct into the rock and roll hall of fame belinda carlisle jane wiglin charlotte caffy gina shock and kathy valentine everyone give it up for the go go