How David Byrne Reacted When Selena Gomez’s ‘Bad Liar’ Sampled Talking Heads
Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” is one of the band’s most famous classic rock songs. Selena Gomez’s “Bad Liar” reuses the bassline of the song. Subsequently, Talking Heads’ David Byrne revealed what he thought about Gomez’s track.
Why Talking Heads’ David Byrne was alright with Selena Gomez sampling ‘Psycho Killer’
During a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone, Byrne was asked if he was upset with Gomez for decontextualizing “Psycho Killer.” “No, no, not at all,” he responded. “I mean, I would have an issue if somebody took, say, ‘This Must Be the Place,’ which is a very personal love song — if somebody repurposed that and made it into some kind of horrible violent thing, I would probably say, ‘No, you do not have permission to do this.’
“Other than that, yeah, repurpose the stuff,” he added. “That’s totally fine. And, you know, we get paid for it too. So thank you, Selena Gomez!”
A rocker besides David Byrne helped write Selena Gomez’s ‘Bad Liar’
Gomez wrote the song with Julia Michaels, Ian Kirkpatrick, and Justin Tranter of the glam rock band Semi Precious Weapons. During a 2017 interview with Variety, Tranter said the sample was born out of Gomez’s love of Talking Heads. “Selena and Julia are Talking Heads-obsessed,” Tranter said. “So when we all got together in one room, Julia suggested, ‘Why don’t we just write over the bassline from ‘Psycho Killer?’ and we were all going, ‘That sounds great!'”
Tranter said the bassline of “Psycho Killer” was originally supposed to be the starting point of “Bad Liar.” However, it worked so well it became the centerpiece of the new song.
Tranter felt “Bad Liar” was “one of those magical moments where the song just comes together very quickly and felt so good.” In addition, he explained his interpretation of the song. “The lyrics are really cool and descriptive about when you first start having feelings for someone, but don’t want to admit it, which turns you into a ‘Bad Liar,'” he said.
Tranter recalled Byrne loving “Bad Liar” when he played him the song. The Semi Precious Weapons singer thought it was cool to have his name listed on the credits of a song next to Byrne’s. In addition, Tranter thought the music Gomez was making at the time she released “Bad Liar” was sexy and futuristic.
How Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’ impacted pop culture before ‘Bad Liar’
“Bad Liar” isn’t the first piece of pop culture history inspired by “Psycho Killer.” Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a homage to the classic slasher films of the 1970s and 1980s. It’s about a serial killer who idolizes the likes of Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, and Chucky from the Child’s Play series. The film fittingly ends with “Psycho Killer” playing over the credits.
In addition, a number of bands have covered “Psycho Killer.” The Wrecks, The Chats, and Cage the Elephant have all performed the song.
“Bad Liar” is an interesting pop song and it cemented “Psycho Killer”‘s place in rock ‘n’ roll history.
