David Byrne & Barry White: What Cars They Drove

I love David Byrne and Barry White, and I love cars too. I have all my favorites. 1953 Packard Caribbean convertible. Henri Chapron Citroën DS 23 Pallas, 1956 Buick Roadmaster, Ferrari 365 GTB, Maserati 3500 GT…all cars I can ill afford to own let alone properly maintain. When David Byrne once visited me at KCRW during a nightly show I briefly did, he ran in all agitated, saying he parked his car outside in a no-parking area. School was in and parking was always scarce. I told him I’d move his car. He told me “No, you won’t know how to drive this car!” I asked him what kind of car it was. He told me it was a Citroën. I told him that I once owned a DS 19 with the “Citromatic” hydraulic clutch. He handed me the keys and I parked it.

A few months later, Barry White visited me at KCRW. Similar situation. I wondered what kind of car he drove? Cadillac? Rolls Royce? No, this time it was a metallic gold Stutz Bearcat. The kind of car you might see in a Blacksploitation film. It would go well with the shiny chartreuse suit he wore that night.

The great bluesman Robert Johnson once observed, “A man with a fine car has no need to justify his self.” Certainly that would be true for David Byrne and Barry White!