Devo’s biggest hit single may be the 1980 track “Whip It,” but it turns out it isn’t the group’s biggest moneymaker.
According to Rolling Stone, that distinction goes to the tune “Uncontrollable Urge,” from their debut album, Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, because a cover of the track is used as the theme song to the MTV series Rob Dyrdek’s Ridiculousness.
The show is aired on the network so often that Mark Mothersbaugh, Devo’s lead singer and main songwriter, earns an estimated $1 million a year from its use, the rocker’s wife and manager, Anita Greenspan, tells the mag.
“I’ve written so many other songs for films and television shows,” Mothersbaugh says. “I would’ve been shocked [years ago] if you told me this is the one that would become this prime source of income.”
Among those other songs Mothersbaugh is referring to are the themes for Pee-wee’s Playhouse and Rugrats, as well as scores for several Wes Anderson films.
Greenspan adds that it’s “ironic” they make so much money from MTV, noting that in the early days of the network it aired a lot of Devo, before the network stopped playing them.
“[The videos] were subversive, they didn’t like them and wouldn’t play them anymore,” she says. “Now ‘Uncontrollable Urge’ is easily the most-played song on MTV, so [Devo] wins.”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.