Blondie 1999: Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Clem Burke & The Comeback Interview | Dini Petty
Blondie, fronted by Debbie Harry of Heart of Glass, Call Me, and Atomic, four weeks after Maria debuted at #1 on the UK Singles Chart and made them the first American band to top British charts in three different decades. No Exit, their first album in 17 years, has been out for seventeen days. The whole band is on the couch.
Clem Burke is sitting next to Debbie. Jimmy Destri is laughing about how he wrote Maria.
Burke died of cancer on April 6, 2025. Destri was diagnosed with throat cancer the same year. Chris Stein, who survived the disease that broke up the band in 1982, has been off the road since 2019. High Noon, Blondie’s first album in nine years, came out three weeks ago and contains Burke’s final drumming on every track. This footage from March 1999 catches all four of them at the moment their first comeback became real.
Not seen since its original broadcast.
CHAPTERS
0:00 All six of Blondie on the couch after the Maria performance
0:26 Debbie won’t watch the old Blondie clips back
1:00 “Amen, thank God”: Debbie on the comeback working
2:14 “Beyond hype”: this comeback feels different
2:48 “One of the 10 most beautiful women”: Debbie deflects
3:58 Stage fright is “misplaced excitement”
5:09 “Don’t jump in the tank of sharks without a bathing suit”
6:42 Jimmy Destri on writing Maria: “all the girls I quit school”
7:24 “A successful dysfunctional family”: surviving Stein’s illness and the breakup
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#Blondie #DebbieHarry #ClemBurke #Maria #NoExit #HighNoon #ChrisStein #DiniPetty #NewWave #ClassicRock
