By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer
TRURO – Distinctly known for her bright, ruby-red mane and as a member of the Athens, Georgia-based new wave party music innovators the B-52s, Kate Pierson knows a good location to call home when she sees one. The “Love Shack” singer settled on the outer Cape Cod in Truro to put down roots, at least part-time, and has named a few local restaurants like Montano’s in Truro and Moby Dick’s in Wellfleet as her some of her favorites.
During a recent walk on the beach, the Jersey girl told WBUR, “I just pinch myself to think I can be here. Just to look out at those waves and the colors. I always see seals here. I don’t see any right now. Maybe they don’t dig the seaweed either. I’m a big rock collector and to me, finding these special rocks is like finding jewels. I always carry a bag with me while collecting.”
Beach house
Aside from her Kate’s Lazy Cape vacation beach home, the singer professes a love for Truro for its quiet, beautiful stretches of beach, the seafood restaurants, markets, and farmers markets and her love of swimming in the ocean with sharks. Kate’s Lazy Cape is available for weekly rentals with a maximum occupancy of six people. Described as the “ultimate beach house,” the location has three private bedrooms and two bathrooms and is walking distance from the Cranberry Hill private beach.
No stranger to the state, according to The Boston Globe, Pierson worked at Massachusetts General Hospital while earning a journalism degree from Boston University in 1970 and unabashedly admits to being involved in lots of protests at the time. After co-founding the B-52s in 1976 with Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson and Ricky Wilson, Pierson changed her solo composing to collaborative songwriting with her bandmates. According to her, “I was writing songs all the time. We’d record our jams and then piece the good parts together like a collage.”
Varied musical ventures
Pierson’s venture as a solo artist earned the 77-year-old gigs at venues such as the Wequassett Resort and Golf Club in Harwich a year ago and more recently at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury and the Provincetown Town Hall. The mezzo soprano lyricist and musician has decades of experience under her belt, especially when it comes to collaborations and pop culture influence.
- She sang on Iggy Pop’s top 40 hit song “Candy.”
- The R.E.M. 1991 album “Out of Time” features guest vocals by Pierson on the songs “Shiny Happy People,” and “Me in Honey.”
- The 1998 soundtrack for “The Rugrats Movie” contains the track “The World Is Something New to Me” and features Pierson, B-52s bandmates Schneider and Wilson along with other artists.
- “We Are Family,” a single released to raise money for the victims of the September 11 attacks, features Pierson and Schneider in the chorus and on the DVD documentation.
- Pierson and the B-52s appeared in an episode of the CBS soap opera “Guiding Light” in 1982.
- For the big-budget, live-action film adaptation of 1994’s “The Flintstones,” the B-52s made a cameo appearance in character as a Stone Age rock band called the BC-52s.
SNL celebration
The B-52s performed “Love Shack” at “SNL50: The Homecoming Concert” in 2025 as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the long-running “Saturday Night Live” television show. The band was joined on-stage by Sarah Sherman, Bowen Yang, and featured Fred Armisen on drums. “SNL” alum Armisen is also the former bandleader for the “Late Night with Seth Meyers” house band. It was the B-52s’ third SNL appearance, after their debut there in 1980 and second appearance in 1990.
Long before the B-52s formed, the band members were already part of the lively alternative music scene in Athens. The popular college town would later be a home for R.E.M., who were, like the B-52s, also a more audience-friendly antidote to more aggressive and angry punk rock.
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