Believe me, we were as shocked as you are that our intrepid reporter/notorious rocker Billy Hopeless somehow wangled a phone interview with Devo co-founder Gerry Casales. Without further ado, Hopeless does Devo:

BH - The first thing I’ve got to ask is do you know who decided, or how it was decided, that Devo would play the medal celebration in Whistler Feb 22? Though I’m both amused and overjoyed beyond belief, I’m still dumbfounded, as I never would have foreseen your band even being considered.

GC- I’ll give you two stories and you can print either or both. The first is that we set up kiosks in all the shopping malls in Vancouver and asked who the public would want to see. The second one is that someone at NBC likes us and contacted Warner Brothers.

BH- Ah, so they used their ‘freedom of choice’, now I can use mine. As a member of Club Devo, I know that you’re releasing a new album and giving Vancouver the honour of being the first test humans. What can we expect from you new traditionalists in 2010?

GC- You’ll know it’s Devo even if you don’t know what Devo sounds like! We’re currently working with an ad agency that has set up focus groups to help decide the album’s title, which is both an experiment and the last thing we’d ever want to do, thus it is truly Devo.

BH- OK, well, you’ve got me jerking back and forth, but I’m really still going under trying to figure out which of your greatest hits and misses best suits the phenomenon of you playing the Olympics. What are your gut feelings? Snowball? Jocko Homo? Uncontrollable Urge? Pink Pussycat?

GC- We’re not playing Snowball! I’ll say Don’t Shoot, I’m a Man off our new album. It’s such a great opportunity. I mean it’s a free concert and we’ll be playing to most likely a lot of people who don’t even know of Devo. It’s an hour long set so you’ll get to hear new songs as well as all the rest, and you know we’ll do Uncontrollable Urge!

BH – You must play Snowball! Though I’m glad you’re playing the Olympics, as it gives me something to spit in the faces of bandwagon jumping alterna-hippicrits about, I’m disappointed I didn’t get a golden ticket to see the show. Are you going to come back to Vancouver so all the rest of us who are through being cool can attend?

GC- I’m sure we’ll be doing a tour once the album’s out and I really hope we do come back to Vancouver. I love the city!

BH – Cool! As a musician I was recently asked in an interview which Olympic sport best compares to my band, The Bonitos. Which Olympic sport is most Devo?

GC – The Luge, as it’s fast, crazy and suicidal, just like Devo.

BH- Ha! I said bobsledding for my band, and with Bob 1 and Bob 2 I figured that would be yours too. But you guys are a crazier event for sure. So, what’s on the Devo rider?

GC- A bunch of stuff we don’t want. We give everything to our crew except for the water and vodka. We don’t want cheese sandwiches, candy and vegetable trays!

BH- Are you going to have merch for sale up at Whistler cause I think the red energy domes will go great with the Olympic red gloves?

GC – No, we’re not permitted to sell merch, but I do agree they would go great together.

BH- Our editor and chief who knows about all the hip new acts going on informed me that you worked on videos with some band called Rush and another known as Silverchair. What was it like working with CanCon Classic and the newer caffeine free popcan con?

GC – I did two videos for Rush (Superconductor and Mystic Rhythms) and meeting Neil Peart was like meeting Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter. He was so intense and told me he thought videos were silly. He insisted that all he wanted to do was sit down and play drums, so I had to create concepts where he only had to do that. Silverchair and me was an odd pairing…

BH- Is Boogie Boy going to sing It’s a Beautiful World with the Olympic mascots at the end of the set? Cause that would truly be the ultimate vision in my books.

GC- You want Boogie Boy to sing It’s a Beautiful World at the Olympics?

BH- Yeah! With the mascots! Pleeeeeeze!

GC-I’d love that too!

BH- Before we terminate this communication, I just want to thank you for being, and continuing to be, Devo. You were and still are a great inspiration and a hugely admired group of artists to this Canadian spud. When I was an early teen I had a poster of you guys on my wall and used to daydream about getting the chance to meet or talk to you. Did you have a poster on your wall of a band that you felt that way about and did you ever meet them?

GC- Yes, it was The Yardbirds with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck and I did get to meet Jeff Beck. He was real cool.

BH- Well, thank you and let me just say it’s been unbelievably cool for me to have this honour so many years later. A gold medal in my life for sure.

GC- And we’re so normal it’s truly weird! Posted: Feb 24, 2010