The Beastie Men

Are the Beastie Boys done?

“We’re done. Oh yeah. Adam Yauch started the band. It’s not like a thing where we could continue without him.”

Never contemplated it?

“No.”

Does that require a psychological adjustment? The band that you were in your entire life no longer exists.

“It’s a huge deal. And so, you know, it’s probably just taken me time to sit and think and try to figure out what I do next or who I am now or, you know, all of that stuff. Because since high school, I was in this band. And you know, it’s one thing when you’re in a band in high school, but then to have it last for so long — that’s who I am and what I did forever. And so now I’m just trying to figure it out.

I have a running list of Acceptable White Men in my email drafts, just in case I die and someone tries to smear me as a racist: thus far, it’s Bill de Blasio, Art Garfunkel, my boyfriend (subject to change), and, always, the two remaining Beastie Boys. Here’s an interview in GQ with Adam Horovitz talking about his real life — -taking care of his wife, Kathleen Hanna, returning items to hardware stores, and dealing with the loss of MCA, who died in 2012. I’ve always loved the Beastie Boys but felt guilty about praising their destructive, careless, often misogynist lifestyle that established the genesis of their careers — -but they do too: “Being a straight white guy in his, like, early twenties — there’s some sort of thing about it. A sort of privilege, a sort of anger or something. You just say some really stupid things.”