Duran Duran Says It's 'All F---ing Cake' After 48 Years Together as a Band: 'One Big Family' (Exclusive)
Duran Duran Says It's 'All F---ing Cake' After 48 Years Together as a Band: 'One Big Family' (Exclusive)
Staff AuthorWed, April 29, 2026 at 6:31 PM UTC
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Duran Duran (L-R John Taylor, Roger Taylor, Simon Le Bon, Nile Rodgers and Nick Rhodes)Credit: Stephanie Pistel -
Duran Duran released their new single “Free to Love” featuring Nile Rodgers and will debut it on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Founding members John Taylor and Nick Rhodes reflect on their nearly 50-year journey and the band's enduring chemistry
The group will perform at the BeachLife Festival and a Las Vegas residency before touring Europe this summer
Duran Duran may play some of the biggest stages in the world, but bassist John Taylor is always happy when the group is able to downsize.
“I love it when the production manager says to me, ‘We've got this gig this weekend, stage is really small.' I'm like, ‘Great,'” Taylor, 65, tells PEOPLE. “Because you're right up against each other and you're reminded what it's like to be a teenage band and how fun that is.”
It's been nearly 50 years since Duran Duran was a teenage band. And though the years from then to now have been a roller coaster ride, the spark remains for the British stars, who are fresh off the release of their new single “Free to Love.”
“People often say to me now, ‘Well why on earth are you still doing this?' And I smile and laugh and just say, ‘Why would I not want to do this?'” says keyboardist Nick Rhodes. “We all love being in Duran Duran.”
It was Taylor and Rhodes, 63, who got the ball rolling on the group that would become one of the most successful survivors of the New Romantic scene. They grew up in the same neighborhood, and Taylor says the two remain “like brothers.”
The pair formed Duran Duran in 1978, and released their self-titled debut album in 1981 (lead singer Simon Le Bon and drummer Roger Taylor eventually joined the fold and remain on board today).
The group released a Halloween-themed album, Danse Macabre, in 2023, but took their time with new music. “Free to Love,” which features Nile Rodgers, came out last week, and Duran Duran will play it live for the first time on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday, April 29.
“We wanted a new song or two, and Nile came into London and we put some sketches down and a couple of the songs made the cut,” Taylor recalls. “And there was one idea that we hadn't… It was just sitting on a hard drive somewhere and Nick said, ‘I think we should get that out and try and make something of it.'”
John Taylor of Duran DuranCredit: Stephanie Pistel
Rhodes says the song — a disco-tinged call for love and unity that traces its origins back to the Danse Macabre sessions — “really captured” his attention. Taylor puts it more bluntly: “You want to hear your music and you want to go, ‘F--- yeah.' This is a ‘f--- yeah' track.”
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“I never let go of the one that has now become ‘Free to Love,'” says Rhodes. “So I mentioned it to everyone else and said, ‘I really love something about that. Can I just go to the studio and present you with something?' And I did, and then when I played it for everyone, they said, ‘Oh wow, yeah, I forgot how great this was.' Once we're all in, that's it.”
Duran Duran has long operated as something of a democracy. As Taylor explains, the group sets up in a room and they're off to the races brainstorming ideas and tossing out keys, tempos and the like, and they play until everyone's in agreement.
“I think this one, we somehow managed to maintain a focus, and I think maybe because we had Nile. He's really fantastic,” he says. “You have to be really open-minded, and I think that's one of the things that has kept the band together all this time, is everybody feels seen, everybody gets to express themselves.”
He admits, too, that the Duran Duran special sauce is what makes them unique.
Nick Rhodes of Duran DuranCredit: Stephanie Pistel
“Chemistry is finding harmony out of a clash of styles. We all learn to play with each other. I'm always at my best in this band. I almost need them to complete me,” says Taylor. “You put me in a room with Bono and The Edge and I'm just going to sound like an idiot.”
Adds Rhodes: “It's like being one big family. We really do love each other in this band. Sometimes a little less than others, but just like families, most of the time we know that we belong to each other and we are part of this unit. That's the strength of Duran Duran.”
While Taylor and Rhodes shut down the possibility of any more new music in the near future (“We've been doing it for 40 years and this is four new minutes of music and this is going to have to do it for now,” says Taylor), fans will have the opportunity to see them play soon.
The “Hungry Like the Wolf” singers are set to perform at BeachLife Festival in Redondo Beach, Calif. on May 1, and will head to the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas afterward for a four-date residency through May 9. Then, they'll spend the summer playing throughout Europe.
“This is all f---ing cake at this point, we've had such an extraordinary career, really, and I just feel so incredibly fortunate that I've just been around so much great music,” says Taylor. “The fact that there's anything still coming out is remarkable to me.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
