Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould receives honorary degree and delivers Macalester College keynote

Some 43 years after Bob Mould left Macalester College just short of graduating to focus on his band Hüsker Dü, he returned to the St. Paul school Saturday to receive an honorary degree and deliver the keynote address.

“It’s an incredible honor,” the 64-year-old told the cheering crowd. “This is all very surreal so hang in here with me, it’s a little crazy.”

Mould’s speech followed several others — including a surprise appearance from Sen. Amy Klobuchar who called Mould “a trailblazing guitarist and songwriter and a major part of why the Twin Cities has become an epicenter of alternative music” — as well as a brief chant of “Free Palestine” from graduates and a performance of Hüsker Dü’s 1985 single “Makes No Sense at All” by student band She’s in Shambles.

Macalester president Dr. Suzanne M. Rivera introduced Mould and told the crowd: “Hüsker Dü showed bands of their generation and those who followed that there was no set road map to follow from punk, that the only charges were to be true to yourself and ethical in your engagement with the world. With your trademark wall of sound, your remarkable trajectory has continued for more than four decades.”

Mould began by telling students that in 1995, he gave the opening speech at the music industry convention South by Southwest and that he felt like he failed as he hadn’t prepared enough for it. “So I’m going to try again because this is what we do in life. We take chances and we try to make good on past mistakes, so this is my next shot.”

Life is like a song with verses, choruses and bridges, Mould said.

“The verse is the part of the song where the writer defines the time, the place, the characters and the story,” he said. “The chorus is the mantra, it’s the part of the song that we sing together. We share the moment, we share the feeling and we support each other. And if that chorus is good, it will stick in your head for the rest of your life.

“And then there’s the bridge. The bridge of a song is a surprise, a departure, a challenge, to twist the melody, to shift to the rhyme, it’s a turn of the story. And in a way, leaving school is like the bridge of a song, into the unknown. And that can be scary or it can be a great opportunity, and oftentimes it’s both.”

From there, Mould talked about growing up in the small New York town of Malone.

“When I was a kid, my parents ran a mom-and-pop grocery store and my sister and brother and I stocked the shelves and ran the cash register. But I grew up in a chaotic home, a violent home, and music was my escape,” Mould said as tears welled in his eyes. “I was fascinated by music. I was fascinated by melodies and words and the people who sang them and it was magic … I also knew that I was different. I realized early on that I was queer.

“As time went on, I knew I needed to leave my hometown and I needed to find a place that could nurture my heart and soul and spirit. I needed to move to a big city, a place where I might find community, a place where I could sing my chorus. Luckily, someone here at Mac thought it was worth taking a chance on me.”

Mould spoke about receiving an underprivileged student scholarship and moving into Macalester’s Turck Hall, which he said felt like the United Nations compared to his hometown.

“There was ambition in the air and it was inspiring,” he said. “The small-town life I’d known for 17 years was instantly replaced by a multicultural, highly educated, very progressive urban environment. I quickly realized I needed to let go of whatever biases had littered my youthful thinking because in cities like St. Paul and colleges like Macalester, we learn to be tolerant, we learn to share space and resources and we learn from our differences, and those qualities are especially important in this American moment as those in charge try to marginalize other cultures and culture itself.”

Mould admitted his spent more time on his music than he did his studies, but said Macalester taught him the skills of debate and the value of critical thinking. He also spoke about his early days in Hüsker Dü and the “reciprocal generosity” of the burgeoning punk rock scene.

“When a touring punk band arrived in the Twin Cities, we were there to help them. Anything from lending equipment to making sandwiches or offering up a floor to sleep on, we were happy to help. We traded phone numbers and addresses with the hope that maybe someday, if we were lucky, we would get to tour and we might become part of this new network of outsiders,” he said.

After Mould’s junior year, he hit the road with Hüsker Dü. He returned to the college that fall, but despite guidance from his adviser, he dropped out before graduating. Hüsker Dü broke up 1988, but Mould went on to form another trio, Sugar, in the mid-’90s and has enjoyed solo success for decades.

“I didn’t make it across that particular bridge,” he said, “but Macalester had prepared me for the next bridge, which was getting my band off the ground, hustling 7-inch singles for gas money, fixing blown-out tires stranded in the middle of a blizzard, even getting held up at gunpoint by a club owner for T-shirt money. Macalester taught me how to deal with all kinds of adversity.”

Mould told the students to take pride in the small victories, but remember no victory is permanent, and to champion critical thinking and “always use your bulls— detector.”

“In closing, I’ve got to ask the graduating class of 2025, are you ready for the future? Are you ready to change the world? Are you ready to protect our democracy? Are you ready for the old guy to wrap it up? The world is yours. Thank you very much.”