As mentioned on R.E.M. HQ, Michael Stipe will join Barnes and Leslie of The Morning X for an exclusive interview this Thursday, June 15th, just after 7am. This is Michael’s first appearance ever on the Morning X. Tune in HERE.
It’s 8.30pm where I live, I’ve just tuned in. They’re playing “The One I Love” for starters.
Thanks Lori, forgot about this. 
Michael said in the interview he has a busy year - an art show in Milan come December, books he’s working on with Patti Smith, his first solo album which will probably be out next year in the spring & activist work in Atlanta. He also said no to an R.E.M. reunion.
The R.E.M. reforming thing was such a waste of a question. You’ve got Michael Stipe there, that’s what you wanna ask him?!
Disappointed, but not surprised, that the solo album is pushed back again. I really love Gimme a Hand. I want an album already!
With all due respect, I think that the band reunion is a legitimate question, especially coming from a journalist or media personality, it’s a matter of public interest. We as fans of the band may not like the question, or might think that there are better questions to ask, but if I was a journalist certainly that’d be amongst my questions.
And yet the real question isn’t whether there will be a reunion. Eventually, the band will reunite at some point in the future in one way or another, and so the real question is when (or why) would they reunite. In much the same way as political men keep denying that they won’t run for office or they won’t resign (but they eventually end up doing it) so musicians have to keep dodging those type of questions.
On the “solo album” topic that doesn’t surprise me either, there’s a thread elsewhere where speculation was that Michael Stipe’s album “would come together next year” and now it’s been postponed. My opinion is that he’ll just keep pushing the dates, if he really wanted to release and album he would have done it already.
Maybe they will, maybe they won’t but over 10 years later I believe there’s the distinct possibility that they may never reunite. Different situation but it’s always refreshing to read interviews with Robert Plant where he’s not asked about a Zeppelin reunion. To me, it’s an indication that the interviewer has done their homework and refrains from asking the same old tired questions. I can only imagine that Plant appreciates that. Stipe might as well.
I appreciate your respect, and I return it, but is there anything about R.E.M. that makes you think they’re comparable to career politicians?
The reunion question is lazy journalism. They’ve been asked it over and over. They’ve answered it, over and over. Anyone who knows and understands R.E.M. knows the answer to that question. It’s pointless asking it.
If I was lucky enough to have a few minutes with Michael Stipe, there are a million questions I’d ask before that one. I know the answer to that one. Waste of time asking it.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a lazy question. Mike Mills recently left the door open just a bit (suggesting he’d do it if someone offered enough money, but that it was very unlikely that would happen).
Michael sounded like he was really dedicated to being part of defending a historic forest in Atlanta, so I’m guessing his solo album has been pushed back a bit because he has all these other things he’s working on as well. When asked about an R.E.M. reunion, Michael also said, all the former R.E.M. members are content with what they’re doing individually and excited and happy for each other. The interview is now up for streaming at R.E.M.HQ
I find it kind of hard to believe that a member of a band that chose not to do a farewell tour because they thought it would be “mercenary” would give in to a reunion because of the money. Have a link to this quote?
I believe it was in this Mills interview:
From watching that, I gathered that he was referring to what it would cost to mount a major tour, not that they’re holding out for someone to offer them a certain amount of money for them to consider reuniting. He also made it abundantly clear that it’s not something that’s going to happen. At least that’s what I got out of it.