Devo — aptly described by cofounder Gerald Casale in their recent Grammy-nominated Netflix documentary as “most misunderstood band in the world” — were always political, with their own unique form of protest music. In fact, Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh were inspired to form Devo after witnessing the murders of their two friends at 1970’s tragic Kent State shootings. But their serious messages often went over the head of fans, who mistook Akron eccentrics for just some new wave novelty act. Maybe those messages were just too subtle, even if they were delivered in yellow boiler suits and plastic JFK wigs via bonkers music videos (many directed by Casale).
However, there is nothing subtle about Casale’s positively vicious new solo single, “Just Do It!,” a protest song released not so much to commemorate/celebrated as commiserate
“America 250” and the nation’s de-evolution that Devo sadly predicted long ago. A surrealist screed about “250 years of our defeat of tyranny in an age of tyranny reborn,” the accompanying animated video stars Donald Trump as the leader of a MAGA zombie army, while Jeffrey Epstein, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton are depicted as demented Teletubbies.
It’s been 16 years since Devo released a studio album, and while new Devo music is needed now more than ever, as the band continues to steal the show at every festival they play and recruit young fans — Casale jokes to Lyndsanity that Devo, with their multi-generational audiences, have become “the new wave Grateful Dead” — a new Devo record is apparently not a possibility right now. (“You’re preaching to the converted here. Tell Mr. Mothersbaugh. …. If you find out, let me know,” Casale says bluntly, when asked about Devo’s long recording hiatus.) So, Casale is releasing his own solo album in October. Wetiko, titled after a “300-year-old Native American belief about the absolute psychological sickness of Western culture,” will feature touring Devo members Jeff Friedl and Josh Hager as well as Oingo Boingo veteran Steve Bartek and guitar god Steve Stevens, and it will feature tracks that “attack the problem with the duality of human nature.”
“I’ll just be honest. I had to put out something on my own. Devo’s not writing new music, but I still feel the same and I still want to be creative,” Casale says flatly. And while he doubts that “Just Do It!” has “penetrated enough or gotten enough exposure to even raise the ire of the intolerant right wing” as much as a Devo single could, he explains: “I do what I have to do. Any organism that finds themselves alive, once you’re alive, you want to try to stay alive. And staying alive means continuing to strive in the face of failure and in the face of tyranny. You can’t give up. If you give up, that’s suicide. … I have the wrong personality to give in to a bully. As maybe self-destructive as it is, I raise the middle finger.”
In the unfiltered video interview above and the only slightly edited text Q&A below, Casale opens up about his fears for America, the planet, and Generation Z; Devo’s most subversive and misunderstood hits; how many Boomers that came up in the 1960s’ flower-power era turned out to be “very selfish and very irresponsible” hypocrites, because “free love” was never really free; if he still believes that rock music can still create a revolution; how he feels about Devo being snubbed by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame three times; and much, much more.
LYNDSANITY: A frequent topic I’ve brought up with you and Mark Mothersbaugh in past interviews is the fact that, as much as it might feel good to know Devo were right all along, it’s not really all that vindicating — because it would’ve been nice to either have been wrong, or for Devo’s message to be quaint or obsolete now. But here we are in 2026, and not much has changed. And you’ve just released a solo song that’s been gestating since Trump’s first term. Tell me the origin story of “Just Do It!”
GERALD CASALE: Yeah, well, it’s just a finger-snapping ditty for fascist America! I knew this was where it was going 10 years ago. When [Trump] came back, my heart sunk into my tender gut. And as much as we wanted to be wrong about everything that we were warning about, as canaries in the coalmine, it goes beyond our worst fears. It’s a horror show. And all the political scientists and pundits and prognosticators keep pointing out the parallels between what Hitler and the fascists did to the Weimar Republic previous to the rise of full-on fascist Germany — everything in Trump’s playbook is the same thing. So, we’re not talking about Democrats and Republicans anymore. We’re not talking about a two-party system in democracy. It’s gone. They did it. This was nothing short of a coup. We are living in a Black Mirror episode now. This is through the looking glass and people that go, “I think there’s a threat to democracy here.” It’s like, um… We’re like cattle to the slaughter. You’re in the shoot on the way to the slaughterhouse asking, “Hey, is the barn door still open back there?” It’s done. It’s done. And I’m an old man, so I’m like, “This is not what I wanted my final clubhouse turn to be.” I didn’t want the last chapter to erase 80 years of democratic rule of law progress since World War II.
You and Devo have lived through a lot of political turmoil, going back to Kent State — that’s where Devo originated, after you sadly witnessed and lost friends in the tragic shootings. During Devo’s run, we’ve had Republicans in office, we’ve had Democrats, the Reagan era, the Nixon era, both Bushes. You’ve seen it all. And yet it seems to me that what is happening now in America is unprecedented. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but do you feel that this is just on a whole other level?
It is a whole other level. That’s the point. It’s not a fair fight anymore. It’s like, imagine if, I don’t know, there’s the Super Bowl, but each team brings its own set of referees. And not only do they bring their own set of referees, but they bring a gang of people with AR-15s! So, they decide what the rules are — and there are no rules. It’s thug rules. It’s like John Gotti runs America.
Tell me about the “Just Do It!” music video, which makes quite a statement. You’ve directed a lot of music videos, for Devo and others. Did you direct this one?
No, I actually didn’t, because my forte is live action, compositing, visual effects. And I didn’t have that kind of budget. I’ll just be honest. I had to put out something on my own. Devo’s not writing new music, but I still feel the same and I still want to be creative. And so, Devo’s drummer, Jeff Friedl, and Devo’s guitar player, Josh Hager, they’re into it. And then I worked with my good friend, Max Papaeschi, who is an Italian satirical artist who got himself in deep trouble with the Biennale with a huge mural called “Nazi Sexy Mouse.” He’ll take imagery in the public realm and appropriate it and twist it. In other words, he will redo it, which is called misappropriation, but there is artistic license there; he’s a satirist, and he creates a lot of imagery. And so, what I did is I worked with his bank of images and characters he’s created, and I wrote a treatment out. I wrote what I wanted to see. I did as much as I could do for the pittance of $10,000.
But it’s priceless because, well, this video is not subtle. It’s pretty scathing. I could even imagine it getting banned in some places.
That’s interesting. I don’t think it’s penetrated enough or gotten enough exposure to even raise the ire of the intolerant right wing. I mean, America was based on individual freedom and tolerance: “I get to do what I get to do in my front yard, and you can do what you do in your front yard, but don’t come over into my front yard and tell me what to do!” It’s that simple, the beginning of America. And these guys don’t understand that. They’re tyrants. They’re intolerant. They are against individual liberty, actually. They hypocritically cite that, and then like 1984, they use the terms like “freedom” to push totalitarian policies. So, the song is about is that Trump is Mussolini, period. Because Mussolini was a clown. Mussolini was a performer and Mussolini was a right-wing fascist who wanted to gain the favor of Hitler. And even Hitler didn’t respect him.
If Hitler doesn’t respect you, that’s pretty bad.
Then you’re not even a good right-winger! So, it’s a video where you see him play out what he’s doing to America, which is he’s collapsed the three rails of divisions of government, of legislative executive and judicial, and ruined that. He’s loaded the Supreme Court with lackeys who are rogue, who are basically pooping on the Constitution. He has now been given more even power by them, which is the point where he’s dismissing all the heads of independent agencies so they’re not independent anymore. He’s attacking the press. He’s destroying a free speech in the culture and TV — and he’s successfully doing it. It’s happening. What you’re watching now is the final call in this fascist playbook, which is he’s destroying the midterms, destroying free and fair elections by saying that they are rigged ,when he’s the one rigging them.
He only claim elections are rigged when he loses, of course.
Well, the top, go-top weapon of a malignant narcissist tis o project his motives onto other people and accuse them of doing what he is in fact doing. And it works with his base.
Maybe I’m naive, maybe I’m optimistic, but do you feel like bit the tides are turning a bit? feel like some Trumpers are beginning to see the writing on the wall and questioning it.
Well, the press keeps meekly putting that message out there, like, “”Ooh, there’s a crack in the armor!” This is false hope. Trump doesn’t care about being unpopular, in case you didn’t notice, because he’s not even playing that game. He doesn’t care.
I think he does care, though, at least a little bit. He wants to be worshiped. He wants to have this cult worship. You really don’t think he cares about being popular?
Hitler took over Germany with 20 percent of the vote. Remember that. The [Nazi Party] never had a majority or even near it, not even a quorum,. Jst like in Animal Farm, Snowball was the idealist, but Napoleon trained the dogs — and that’s all you need to do.
I mentioned that you came up with the idea for “Just Do It!” years ago. Did you have the full song or some version of it ready during the 2016?
I just wrote down the lyrics. I wrote them in 2016.
Did you update them at all for 2026?
Well, I should have ,because by the time that the song came out, [Hungary’s prime minister Viktor] Orban had been defeated, and I list him as one of the fascists in the fight circle! But other than that, I didn’t change anything, because these despots that rule the world are pretty much the same guys. They’re the same players. We have Putin, number one. We have Kim Jong-un, we have Trump, and we still have Erdogan.
I mentioned that Devo came out of Kent State and witnessed a lot of…
I’ve often been amused when music fans totally miss what an artist is about, and they get mad a get mad at Bruce Springsteen for speaking out against Trump or even tell someone like Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello not to mention politics! I can imagine that’s happened so much with Devo — people thinking you’re just a fun new wave band with cool visuals and outfits and red hats, and they’re like, “Shut up, Devo! Just sing ‘Whip It’!” Does that bother you?
No, it’s predictable. We experienced that long ago. You’re right. It’s like, “Shut up and play!” I remember once in the ’60s, I actually saw an interview that was filmed by Bob Dylan… “Like a Rolling Stone: became a hit on top 40 Radio. And some pimpy, superior reporter with the Brylcreemed hair and fat suit, he’s looking at Bob with his scruffy ‘fro and rumpled work shirt, and he says, “Doesn’t it bother you that nobody even understands this song –and if they do, they don’t like it?” And Bob goes, “No, no, because actually if they could understand it, it couldn’t be a hit. The only reason it’s hit is nobody understands it.” He understood that: They like it for the wrong reasons, but it doesn’t matter. It’s working — that subversion. “Like a Rolling Stone” being in the top five on national top 40 radio was subversion.
What were Devo’s biggest songs of subversion? Obviously “Whip It” was your major hit, but it was not your most subversive song. Freedom of Choice” was a pretty big hit, though.
“Freedom of Choice,” absolutely. We’re saying, “Freedom of choice is what you’ve got. Freedom from choice is what you want,” — and everybody’s just bopping to it! And then with “Beautiful World,” it’s saying, “It’s a beautiful world for you, but not for me,” and everyone is like, “Yay, it’s a beautiful world!”
But don’t you think it eventually sets in via osmosis? Maybe fans who were young when those songs came out, they grew up and were like, “Oh, I never caught that before.”
That’s the heartwarming part, because now I joke that we’re like the new wave Grateful Dead. We look out in the audience at festivals like Coachella and we’re seeing three generations. We’re seeing our original fans who are still lucky enough to be alive, and we’re seeing their kids, and we’re seeing their kids. And those kids are bopping out and using their cell phones and singing the lyrics. And they weren’t alive when we wrote these songs. And it’s amazing.
The young generation tends be pretty savvy. They kind of get it right away, right? They don’t just think these songs are fun bops. They get it.
They get it. They’re very savvy. They’ve grown up in a dysfunctional, dystopian world and they totally understand dark satire. They totally understand hypocrisy and the movie Idiocracy. They get it all. And the problem is that for them, the economy is worse than for any generation in the world and they have no power. People think that they’re just dumb ,going off doing weird things and playing video games. They’re actually high-IQ people who realize, “Well, what the hell am I going to do about this? I’m like a cog here. I can’t do anything.” It doesn’t mean they’re not pissed off. They are. They’re depressed because they never got that day in the sun that they see in vintage videos and in vintage culture and documentaries where there was a middle class, there was freedom. There were people having fun prior to the internet and digital technology. And your phone bill was like $15 a month.
Maybe you need to bring Devo 2.0 back — the kiddie version of Devo.
We need a new Devo 2.0. Yeah, we do.
Or Devo 3.0! But on the subject of generational divides, I look at the Boomers who came up in the ‘60s and were all about the sexual revolution, peace and love, flower power, protesting against Vietnam, going to Woodstock, whatever. And the way that some people thinks Gen Z are a bunch of dumb kids,” the ’60s kids’ parents felt that way about these hippies back then. There was this youthquake in the 1960s and huge change happened, huge shifts in culture. But now those ex-hippies are retired and have a comfortable life because they had the good fortune of being born in a time when the cost of living was so much cheaper and it was easy to be middle-class. And I feel like they kind of pulled up the ladder behind them. I wonder why, if they were preaching about peace and love and taking care of your brother back then, why they aren’t doing that now.
Unfortunately, you’re right. That’s exactly what happened. And it’s because despite all the lofty philosophizing and sprinkling of wonderful words, the people were actually very selfish and very irresponsible. And frankly, it was also at that same time of the peace-and-love culture was this idea that by the time you were 30, it was over. Nobody cared how long they lived. … So, underneath it all, there was immense irresponsibility and selfishness. Nobody cared about the consequences of free love, because love wasn’t free. A lot of people got really hurt and really fucked up.
I’m not saying all Boomers became this way. But I look at some of the hippie Woodstock types and feel it was just a fashion thing for them. They were young and in college and they were I’m going to have a bunch of sex and take a bunch of drugs and grow their hair long and tell their square parents fuck off. And they didn’t want to go to war, because who does?
That’s exactly what it was, on one level. Nobody wants to talk about classism in late capitalist culture, but classism was always at the basis of this — because the kids that went out there and did what you’re saying ,when the going got tough, they ran home to Daddy and joined his company as a vice president. They avoided the consequences, and then they became right-wing. They wanted to protect their money. And that’s what happened. The Boomers who ended up controlling things weren’t the hip ones. The hip ones may have thought they’d won the cultural war and made the right-wingers looked stupid, but those people stayed at the table and took over the reins of power.
I’ve also been surprised over the years when a lot of aging rock stars become conservative. Rock ‘n’ roll was supposed to be about rebellion, or so I thought,
Yeah, it was supposed to be about rebellion, but it wasn’t at all. It was actually perfectly mainstream consumerism and anti-intellectual. These people weren’t analyzing the culture or caring about if there is fairness in the judicial system. The music and even the iconography and the clothing and everything, it’s all about totalitarian presence and conformity. Those crowds are conformist crowds.
Well, there was a belief in the ’60s, and also in the ’70s with the first wave of punk, that music can change the world, or change the culture, move the needle in some way. As someone who’s been doing your own very unique version of protest music for decades now, do you believe music can still have a political sway?
I don’t know. If you look at the forces of intolerance and of hate and of stupidity and anti-democratic values, how they proliferate society, and then you see how few people it takes to fight that to bring it back to parity… in other words, if there aren’t people doing something against that, even a few, then these people will run rampant and it will be over, over, over. But all we can do is scratch our way back to square one — in other words, make it sure it doesn’t get worse. Hold up a resistance to full-on tyranny and bring it back to where people are scraping by. And so, I think the complex answer to your simple question is, I think that that music does make a difference. Does it create a revolution? Absolutely not.
But what can we actually do?
This is as much as I can do. And then even though it has become kind of a joke, you can vote. Voting has been compromised to where your vote doesn’t count. You saw in Trump’s first term, what was it, 500,000 pink pussy hats? Did it do anything? No. Did they outlaw abortion? Yeah. Because it has nothing to do with democracy and it had to do with some right-wing ideologue fuckheads in black robes, that’s just like The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s like watching some medieval tribunal. It might as well be the Inquisition, these hideous people who are so out of touch with humanity, with freedom, with liberty. It’s disgusting. And what they believe is so sick and so stupidly centuries behind the times, and they are allowed to do that. They hold the power. It’s a horror show.
You have a new solo album coming out in October. Is the whole album going to be politically themed like “Just Do It!” is?
There’s no other on-the-nose song like that. There are plenty philosophically that attack the problem with the duality of human nature. And the album is called Wetiko. If you look that up, you’re going to love it. It’s about a 300-year-old Native American belief about the absolute psychological sickness of Western culture. At the basis of Western culture, they think, is a cannibalistic virus where the brain’s infected with insatiable greed and selfishness. They believed this then, and they described it then in terms of their more mystical terminology, but it’s been there forever. And they even drew a personification of this monstrous sick force that’s in humans, a beast called the Wendingo that is basically a hideous large bird, like a crow, but featherless with a big cowl and as big as a dinosaur, just grabbing babies and eating them.
Is that going to be what your next video looks like? I can envision it now.
Some monster that would be friends with Jeffrey Epstein.
I’m sorry I laughed at that! Sometimes I want to laugh, sometimes I want to cry, but I guess all you can do is laugh sometimes, right? I think Devo have always done — seen the black humor in it all.
If you don’t, what are you going to do? You become a homicidal maniac, because there’s so many people that should die.
Are you ever going to do anything as Jihad Jerry again?
He didn’t get the love.
I mean, given what’s going on in the world internationally right now, perhaps there’s something Jihad Jerry would have to say about it…
Jihad could come back.
Jihad could come back. Devo 2.0 come back. But what about new Devo music? It’s been 16 years since the last Devo album, Something for Everybody, and it was really critically well received at the time. Devo are still a very active touring band, and gaining new young fans all the time, so I think we need some Devo music right now. Any possibility of that?
You’re preaching to the converted here. Tell Mr. Mothersbaugh.
Mark is not currently into the idea of a recording new Devo album?
No, it doesn’t seem so.
Do you mind me asking why? Is it because he’s just focused on other things?
If you find out, let me know.
Well, I’m glad that you’re doing your own music. Can you tell me a little more about Wetiko? Who is on it?
Again, two members of Devo, Jeff Friedl and Josh Hager, played on everything. And then Steve Bartek, formerly of Oingo Boingo, played on three tracks. And believe it or not, I got to work with Steve Stevens. He’s on four tracks. He’s all over them.
How did that collaboration come about?
Well, I was talking to Josh Hager about Steve, and I go, “Man, it’d be great to work with Steve!” And he goes, “I’ll call him.” Ut was that simple. He’s the nicest guy. He’s very cool and so professional. Being in the studio with Steve was fun.
Steve Stevens is getting into the Rock & Roll Hallof Fame with Billy Idol this year. Devo have been nominated three times, but you guys still aren’t in. Does the Hall matter to you?
I think anybody that says they don’t care is lying. It’s a posture. But on the other hand, once you’ve been snubbed three times and you watch who gets in, you kind of reevaluate why you ever valued being in the Rock Hall of Fame, which is a misnomer at this point.
Who’s in that you don’t think should be?
You’d have to show me a list, but the list is long. … The Rock Hall of Fame is all about insider trading, money. It’s money. That’s it. And And most of the people who get in now, they don’t rock.
But when people complain about R&B or hip-hop artists getting in the Rock Hall, that doesn’t bother me personally, because all that music goes back to the same source” the blues.
Oh, I don’t think I meant literally rock, but I see what you’re saying. Look at all the white artists that made millions of dollars ripped off Black music, period. There’s no doubt about it. We wouldn’t be anywhere without those people being ripped off. All the blues and R&B, Chuck Berry too, all of it. But what I’m talking about is [the Hall] should be about good music. The Bee Gees never “rocked,” but you listen to “Stayin’ Alive,” and that is a fucking unbelievable song. And he’s singing, “Somebody help me. I’m going nowhere!”
And it’s just like with the Devo misunderstandings: Everybody’s dancing and thinking it’s just a happy disco song! It goes back to the point you made about Dylan, that maybe a message has to be packaged in a subtle way so it can infiltrate the mainstream. But there’s a lot of not-subtle messaging in “Just Do It!” So, what is your No. 1 concern about what’s facing us today?
To me, I just think the prevailing culture is so depressing, and I feel so bad for people 20 and under who are inheriting a world that’s going to hell in a handbasket, environmentally, at the hands of psychotic morons who are attacking the environment. They’re not trying to help; they’re attacking the environment and bringing about the demise of the natural bounty of the Earth. Then there’s the exacerbation of inequality where the billionaire class is partnering with right-wing despots to hoard all the resources, all the wealth, dole it out and keep people enslaved. That’s what’s going on.
I don’t want to end this interview on such a bummer note, so are there any final thoughts you have that have a glimmer of hope for our society? Anything else you can tell me about your new music and its message?
I do what I have to do. Any organism that finds themselves alive, once you’re alive, you want to try to stay alive.
Much like the Bee Gees advised.
That’s right. And staying alive means continuing to strive in the face of failure and in the face of tyranny. You can’t give up. If you give up, that’s suicide.
I agree with that, and I thank you for speaking out. There are some other artists that are speaking out, but I think many are still feeling muzzled — maybe even reeling from the Dixie Chicks backlash from more than 20 years ago. I would’ve expected so much more protest music to come out during the past decade, but that has not been the case.
People are running scared. People lost their nerve. The bullies won.
Well, I’m glad that you never lost your nerve.
Yeah, I can’t help it. I have the wrong personality to give in to a bully. As maybe self-destructive as it is, I raise the middle finger.
