#bebe article

May 1980 - Bebe Buell's interview published in "Oui" magazine.

Bebe Buell Bounces Back With 'Skin Suit'

Check out our premiere stream of the rock icon's new single

Bailey Brantingham

Apr 24, 2025

Back in October, pop culture legend and Nashville Renaissance woman Bebe Buell went into surgery as part of the treatment plan for stage I breast cancer. As she prepared for the extensive process of treatment, she revisited a concept she had conjured two years prior — a self-reflecting ballad titled “Skin Suit.”

Her plan was simple: complete the surgery, begin recovery and release the song by December. However, as Buell well knows, life doesn’t always go according to plan. Rather than make the immediate recovery she hoped for, she struggled for months with fatigue and the grueling task of sifting through treatment options. So, the track went on back burner for a while. She recovered quietly, focusing on her health and taking the time to put some final touches on the single. Through it all, though, Buell knew that her return to releasing music would come soon.

“I was like, ‘I’ve danced around the Empire State Building with David Bowie,’” says Buell in a recent interview. “‘I think I’ll be alright.’”

Fast forward six months, and Buell is back to her mystically uninhibited self — with a strict diet from her doctor, she adds begrudgingly — and “Skin Suit” is finally ready for its debut. We’re very pleased to premiere the track today; check it out on Bandcamp and find it on your favorite streaming service. 

Through her signature silky-smooth croons, Buell sings about living with her “skin suit” — her physical body, the vessel we enter the world with. You’re born with your body, but you learn to love what’s inside. As she sings while the piano, strings and insistent percussion roll on: “This is just my skin suit / Hanging next to my Manuel / This is just my skin suit / Hanging next to my Coco Chanel.” Since Buell finished the single, it has taken on multiple meanings for her. 

“For me, ‘Skin Suit’ has an entire complex umbrella,” Buell says. “I want everybody to get something different out of it … If it's a love song to some people, that's great. If it’s a song about healing, that's great. If It's a song about political intelligence and education, that's great too. I'm open for all cause and effect.”

Bebe Buell, a Grand Dame of Rock, Stares Down Cancer in Empowering Song ‘Skin Suit’

The singer and Seventies fashion model was diagnosed with breast cancer last year

July 14, 2025

Bebe Buell turns 72 today, and the rock & roll grand dame has never been more vital. Or more appreciative of her time on this planet.

Last summer, the singer, songwriter, and model was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram. She had a lumpectomy, and then a breast reduction, before embarking on a holistic journey to regain her health. Buell succeeded and is presently showing no signs of cancer seven months after her surgery.

On Monday, she celebrates her resilience, while taking stock of the temporary nature of life, with the release of her new song and video “Skin Suit.” Buell delivers the gothic rock ballad, which she co-wrote with producer Greg Lattimer and her husband and creative partner, Jim Wallerstein, with gravitas, grace, and good ol’ fashioned theatricality. While her “skin suit” may be her very flesh and blood, she considers it no more important than the haute couture in her closet.

“This is just my skin suit/Hanging next to my Manuel,” she sings, cheekily name-checking the Nashville tailor famous for his rhinestoned creations. In the next line, Buell says she stores her “skin suit” next to “my Coco Chanel.”

“The ‘skin suit’ is the physical body. It’s not our soul. It’s what we use to be on this earth,” Buell tells Rolling Stone. “I had the title and I had the chorus in my head whirling around. And then after I got my diagnosis, it was almost like something channeled. I put my pen to a piece of paper and it literally just poured out of me exactly as I sing it.”

Despite its connection to her cancer battle, Buell is reluctant to describe “Skin Suit” as a survivor story. “It’s a warrior story, because I am a warrior that is not going to be killed in battle,” she says. “I’m being very Joan of Arc about this.”

In the video, directed by Alden Allen and Elise Lacret, Buell — in her Manuel pants and jacket — performs the song in front of an unfolding galaxy of stars. Long after she was famously photographed in the Seventies in a Creem T-shirt and little else, she embraces her decades. “I’m trying to age gracefully and show people that you can be very alive and very on the road to healing at all ages. And music is healing,” she says.

Buell, who’s lived in Nashville since 2013, continues to perform live. Back in 2018, she joined Steven Tyler onstage for “Train Kept A-Rollin’” during the Aerosmith frontman’s solo show in Nashville. Buell and Tyler are the parents of the actress Liv Tyler, and Buell says she sent “Skin Suit” to her longtime friend for him to hear. “Catchy as fuck,” Tyler replied in a lengthy, praiseful text.

October 1980 - "Creem" magazine article on Bebe Buell and her musical debut.

November 1983 - American musician and model Bebe Buell for "Oui" magazine.

Interview by her friend Liz Derringer, photographer is maybe Marcia Resnick? Not sure if the following photos are from the same session:

November 1981 - Two clippings from Bebe Buell and The B-Sides' concerts reviews.

Photo 1) Published November 21, 1981, unknown publication.