David Byrne (born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-born American musician who was the founding member, principal songwriter, and lead singer and guitarist of the American new wave band Talking Heads, active between 1975 and 1991.

Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera, fiction and non-fiction. He has received Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe awards and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Biography

Relationships
Byrne had relationships with a number of women during the 1970s, including photographers Andrea Kovacs and Mary Clarke who attended the Rhode Island School of Design. He also had a relationship with photographer Lynn Goldsmith in 1980. He had a brief affair with Toni Basil in 1981 and he dated Twyla Tharp between 1981 and 1982. While visiting Japan in 1982, Byrne met costume designer Adelle Lutz whom he married in 1987. They have a daughter, Malu Abeni Valentine Byrne, born in 1989. Byrne and Lutz divorced in 2004. After his divorce, he became romantically involved with art curator and Gagosian Gallery sales director Louise Neri. He also had a relationship with the artist Cindy Sherman from 2007 to 2011.

Although a resident of the United States since childhood, Byrne is still a British citizen, but applied for US citizenship in 2012. He lives in New York City. His father, Thomas, died in October 2014. His mother, Emma Byrne, died on 25 June 2014.


Cycling
Byrne is known for his activism in support of increased cycling and for having used a bike as his main means of transport throughout his life, especially cycling around New York. He has a regular cycling column in The New York Times and does not own a car.

Byrne says that he began cycling while he was in high school and returned to it as an adult in the late 1970s. He likes the freedom and exhilaration cycling gives him. He has written widely on cycling, including a 2009 book, Bicycle Diaries. In August 2009, Byrne auctioned his Montague folding bike to raise money for the London Cycling Campaign.

In 2008, Byrne designed a series of bicycle parking racks in the form of image outlines corresponding to the areas in which they were located, such as a dollar sign for Wall Street and an electric guitar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Byrne worked with a manufacturer that constructed the racks in exchange for the ability to sell them later as art. The racks remained on the streets for about a year.

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