Friends “knew” about David Byrne’s Autism

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Next month Talking Heads co-founders Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth will be appearing in a series of in-depth live interviews with journalist and writer Miranda Sawyer.

Titled Remain In Love, the shows will feature the pair, who formed Talking Heads with David Byrne in 1973, discussing their careers in music, their relationship and Frantz’s 2020 memoir of the same name.

Speaking to MOJO in 2020, Weymouth and Frantz described meeting each other at The Rhode Island School of Design in 1973, becoming a couple and the original seeding and growth of the band that would become Talking Heads.

“David was always, let’s just say, eccentric,” recalled Frantz. “All around RISD,” added Weymouth, “they were known as The Autistics.”

Not until 2012, in the pages of his How Music Works book, would Byrne diagnose himself with mild Asperger’s syndrome. “We all knew,” said Weymouth. “I mean, all of David’s friends knew.
He didn’t always have the full shilling, you might say, in terms of emotional intelligence or that sort of thing. But we loved him.”