Debbie Harry recently celebrated 40 years as the lead singer of the punk band Blondie. She and band mate (and former boyfriend) Chris Stein recently spoke with CBS about four decades in the music world. Stein, who also photographed not only their band, but also others of the early punk era, has chronicled Blondie throughout the decades in a new book, Negative: Me, Blondie and the Advent of Punk.

“The photos are like songs; they are movements in one larger piece, but they are more specific,” Stein said. “I like the photographs of Blondie walking down the street; she’s relaxed and herself. I started taking photos of Blondie when we first met. Then we moved into a bigger place and it got a little more normal and organized.

“We have a mental connection, and it goes that way when we write music too,” he continued. “We still need one more hit. I take a lot of vitamins. it helps.”

Debbie Harry and David Bowie, 1977, from Chris Stein's new photography book: http://t.co/JtqgYKOrX9 pic.twitter.com/60TyjMJ8BC

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) September 24, 2014

Blondie–with Debbie Harry on vocals–broke on to the music scene with their first commercial success, ‘Heart of Glass,’ back in 1979.

“I did get in trouble for this dress,” Debbie Harry said. “The record company was appalled that I made a dress out of a pillowcase and wrapped it in gaffers tape.”

Earlier this week at New York’s Chelsea Hotel, a photographic celebration of Blondie’s 40 years–including the release of Chris Stein’s new book–drew scores of admirers–even Sting.

“It was during the punk era, and there wasn’t that much beauty around; people were trying to be ugly, more than anything else,” Sting said. “So to have this beautiful woman come to the forefront was something that I valued greatly as a man.”

“If it hadn’t been me, it would’ve been somebody else, I think,” Debbie Harry said. “Although I think that I sort of held my ground.”

She was definitely one of a kind. And she’s still at it. She and Chris Stein–ages 69 and 64, respectively, still tour as Blondie.

“Regardless of what anyone said to me or tried to make me do, you know, if it wasn’t right, it wasn’t right,” Harry said.

'70s icon Debbie Harry of @BlondieOfficial revealed: http://t.co/RqjNSMC59i Photos by Chris Stein @Rizzoli_Books pic.twitter.com/H7nNf2jKrv

— CNN Photos (@CNNPhotos) September 22, 2014

Debbie Harry did it right.

Are you a Blondie fan? Does your love of Debbie Harry go all the way back to the 1970s?