How The Hives Got Cyndi Lauper To Go ‘Down On Your Mother’

It took a bit of convincing, but The Hives eventually convinced Cyndi Lauper to sing the line “And went down on your mother” on their Christmas duet.

Earlier this month the two performed A Christmas Duel at Home For The Holidays, a benefit concert for homeless gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth, in New York City. It's the only time the track has been performed live.

Speaking to The Music's Bryget Chrisfield, The Hives' Howlin' Pelle Almqvist said there were no carols involved on the night.

“No it was like: Cyndi Lauper had this Christmas spectacular that was a charity event and she wanted us to do it, and luckily we were in town. So there was also a bunch of other artists and comedians and actors and actresses and famous people, you know, doing some sort of Christmas event that people pay money – spend their money so that [it] can go to a charity for homeless transsexuals and homosexuals and so forth.”

The track itself was released back in 2008 and has taken this long to perform live.

“Ah, well, a really long time ago we were talking to a friend who lived in New York and we were talking about Cyndi Lauper, Cyndi Lauper came on the stereo, and we were talking about how much The Hives love Cyndi Lauper,” Almqvist said, “like, we think she's one of the best voices of all time, you know.

“So she's like, 'Oh, I know her. Like, I know her manager and stuff. You wanna do a duet?' and we went, 'Yeah, sure, we wanna do a duet.'

“So she sent away the question and Cyndi said, 'Yes'. And a couple of years later, or maybe a year or two later, we came up with the Christmas song and then it just seemed very obvious that she should do it with us, and, as luck would have it, she came to Stockholm on tour, like, maybe a month later so there was a chance for us to come and record it then. She was pretty hesitant about the lyrics, but eventually she caved and did it.”

Lauper's parts include the lines, “And I slept with your brother/I wrecked your Daddy's car/And went down on your Mother/I set your record collection on fire.”

Almqvist admits, “I think she was kinda uncomfortable about the whole thing, but later on she thought it was really fun… I mean, [in] that first verse we were kinda crude anyway so we thought we might as well go all out.”