Born Jason Sellards in Mesa, Shears has an enviable resume. The one-time Mountain View High School student wrote a musical with Elton John; collaborated with Cher on “Take It Like a Man” and starred as Charlie in “Kinky Boots” on Broadway.
Recently, Shears revived his pop-dance band, Scissor Sisters, best known for its songs I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” and “Take Your Mama.” They’ll join Kesha on her “Tits Out” run, which includes a hometown show on Sunday, July 6, at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre.
The Valley means a lot to Shears, who came out in 1993 at age 15. His first concert — the English bands Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Wonder Stuff at the Mesa Amphitheatre — changed the course of his life. “It was such a pivotal moment in my life,” he said. “I really remember just being so blown away by live music. Plus, there was this band that I was obsessing over.
“I was really into KUKQ, which was the alternative radio station. It was amazing to see this band from Britain playing right in front of me.” He said the 1990s were a prime decade for alternative music, just before the rise of Nirvana. “There were just so many great bands, and it felt like everybody came through town. I saw so many shows,” he explained. “It’s really special for me to think about — after all these years later — I would be doing it myself.”
Finding success
An entertainment career came quickly for Shears. While in his early 20s, he and Scott Hoffman formed the band in 2001, initially calling it Dead Lesbian and the Fibrillating Scissor Sisters. Three years later, the flamboyant Leo Sayer- and David Bowie-influenced act scored hits with “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’” and “Take Your Mama.” They reached No. 1 in the U.K. albums chart, becoming the country’s best-selling album of 2004 — beating Keane’s “Hopes and Fears” by 582 copies.Scissor Sisters went on an indefinite hiatus in 2012. During that time, Shears starred in “Kinky Boots” at the Hollywood Bowl, and penned the lyrics for Elton John’s Broadway musical, “Tammy Faye.” Shears thought Scissor Sisters was over.
“I didn’t know if Scissor Sisters was going to ever really exist again,” he said.
Scissor Sisters reformed with Babydaddy and Del Marquis in late 2024 for a myriad of reasons. “None of us are really getting any younger, right?” said Shears, 46. “We needed to wait for a moment where those of us who wanted to do it again were all on the same page. It just felt like perfect timing. I said to the boys, ‘This is either going to be the beginning of something new for us, or it’s going to be the end of something that was great.” The former was true.
“We did a 10-arena tour here (in England) that just finished a couple weeks ago,” he said. “It was just an absolute joy to play all these songs again. The lineup of the band, now, is so cool.”
Joining the Scissor Sisters are Amber Martin, Bridget Barkan and Randy Real. “We’ve all been friends for so long,” he said. “It feels like such a family affair. It feels like the Sisters got this facelift.
“Playing again has felt really powerful. On the Kesha tour, we’re doing a lot of outdoor shows. It’s going to be twilight. We’re definitely a band that works well in a festival atmosphere, outside in the daytime. However, we’re also known for our after-dark performances. It’s going to be great.
“The trajectory of the set is really good, and we’re just gonna go out and kill it.” He feels 2025 is the right time for Scissor Sisters to tour the divisive United States. “It’s really interesting coming back as a band, with what we stand for and who we are at this moment in time, is really meaningful,” he said.
“During Pride month, corporate sponsors were pulling back, and the administration has been weirdly trolling, taking Harvey Milk’s name off the aircraft carrier. Right now is a great time for us to be doing what we’re doing.”
That said, Shears lives in London but has a home in New Orleans. “I love Louisiana and New Orleans so much,” he said. “It’s been interesting to be living over here in the UK right now. This is a great summer for Scissor Sisters to be in America. Let’s put it that way.”
On July 18, Scissor Sisters will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its self-titled debut with limited deluxe, two-LP vinyl and three-CD editions. The expanded version includes “Laura,” “Comfortably Numb,” “Take Your Mama,” “Mary,” and “Filthy / Gorgeous” alongside B-sides and rarities. Listening back to those songs, Shears is somewhat pleased.
“Some of the production, to me, sounds so rudimentary, but revisiting the first album has been really sweet and moving,” he said. “When I hear it and when I sing those old songs again, I think about when I was writing them. The sound of that whole album is of kids learning how to write songs. We didn’t know what we were doing. “We were having fun. We were being goofy, then all of this meaningful stuff started to come out, to our delight and surprise.” Shears said he’s proud of that moment in life, “when I just had this taste and it set me up for what was going to become the rest of my life.”
Astrologer Rob Brezsny couldn’t have said it better, according to Shears.
“He said, ‘What you accomplish in the next three months is going to determine the next 10 years of your life.’ “I took that really seriously. He was right. They really did determine the trajectory of everything else.”
Scissor Sisters open for Kesha at 7 p.m. Sunday, July 6, at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre. Tickets are available on the venue’s site.
