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Talking Heads musicians survive serious collision with drunk driver

Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, the husband and wife musicians who were core members of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, have survived a serious car crash after a collision with a drunk driver.

According to a post from Frantz on Facebook, accompanying an image of their wrecked Ford SUV, the incident happened two weeks ago on US Route 1. He wrote:

We were struck head on by a drunk driver who was driving on the wrong side of the road. Incredibly, we walked away from the collision. Tina had a Cat scan and suffered three fractured ribs and a fractured sternum. She’s been in a lot of pain but she will get better with time. I give thanks to our guardian angels and to the Ford Motor Company for building a car that protected us from getting killed.

A representative for Weymouth told Pitchfork that she was “a bit banged up in the accident but is resting and doing well. With the type of injury she had, rest is a key part of the recovery process. Chris is taking good care of her.”

On drums and bass respectively, Frantz and Weymouth were the rhythm section of Talking Heads, who blended a range of styles including punk, funk and rock before crossing over into the US pop mainstream with hits including Burning Down the House and Road to Nowhere. The pair, who married in 1977, also formed Tom Tom Club in 1981, a funk and new wave group known for songs such as Wordy Rappinghood and the much-sampled Genius of Love.

Frantz wrote about their long marriage and musical life in the 2020 memoir Remain in Love.