Kate Bush Also Thinks the "Whole World's Gone Mad"

"In a lot of cases they've never heard of me… these young people"

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Jun 22, 2022

Kate Bush has officially spoken, and she has uttered nothing but truth: the pop icon agrees that the "whole world's gone mad."

Yes, the interview has aired, which sees a characteristically soft-spoken, demure Bush in conversation with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour host Emma Barnett — the musician's first recorded chat since the release of live album Before the Dawn in 2016.

The newfound notoriety, and subsequent press, obviously comes in light of the viral placement of "Running Up That Hill" in the new season of Netflix's Stranger Things. On the show, the song possesses an entirely relatable power over Sadie Sink's character, Max. And so too, the world at large: last week, the track from 1985 hit No. 1 on the UK charts.

"Well it's just extraordinary," Bush told Barnett of her brush with virality. "The whole world's gone mad!"

"In a lot of cases they've never heard of me… these young people," she continued. "I think it's very special."

Barnett went on to ask about the original inspiration and intention behind the sleeper hit, to which Bush responded: "The idea was a man and a woman swapping places with each other to see what it was like from the other side." She added, "I really like people to hear a song and take from it what they want."

Bush is a noted fan of the Netflix show that has launched her to a new generation, as is her son, Bertie. "We binge-watched the series together," she said of Stranger Things, which she's apparently been keeping up with since the first episode.

Much like how it seemed to awaken a dormant beast within many of us who somehow weren't constantly thinking about "Running Up That Hill" for some reason, it was in this mother-son bingeing that the musician was confronted with hearing her own song for the first time in ages.

"I never listen to my old stuff," she admitted. "But then you know, when things like this come along, I'm normally involved in something like you know, maybe doing an edit or revisiting the track for some kind of other reason, I'm working on it. So yeah, I hadn't heard it for a really long time."

Elsewhere in the conversation, Barnett queried the icon about her own TikTokification, asking if she knew about "Witchtok." "No, I don't," Bush laughed, "it sounds ridiculous."

Kate Bush — never wrong.

And if the trailer is any indication, there will still be plenty of "Running Up That Hill" in Volume 2 of Stranger Things 4. More Bush for all!

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