[37], Stipe inducted the American grunge band Nirvana into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10, 2014. ", In all of this, Stipe has remade himself in the manner of his greatest idol, and now close friend, Patti Smith. wrote as a "plea" to Kurt Cobain", How we met: Michael Stipe and natalie Merchant | The Independent, Michael Stipe Holiday Collector's Series at Lacoste.com, "Live at the '12-12-12' Sandy Benefit Concert", "Michael Stipe and Courtney Love Bid Bon Voyage on 'Rio Grande' Duet | SPIN | SPIN Mix | Songs", "Michael Stipe reveals first new music since REM split", "Michael Stipe Inducts Nirvana Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame", "Michael Stipe to Debut New Solo Composition at MoogFest", "Fischerspooner Team with Michael Stipe for New Song "Have Fun Tonight", "Michael to Release Solo Single "Your Capricious Soul" via MichaelStipe.com on October 5th", "Michael Stipe to Release Second Solo Single 'Drive to the Ocean' on Jan.4th", "REM's Michael Stipe on his 37,000 photos of stars, lovers and Kurt Cobain's hands", "It's the end of the world as we know it and Michael Stipe feels fine", "Michael Stipe, Big Red Machine Drop 'No Time for Love Like Now' Video", "Trying to Rescue a Beloved Relic of the Past", "Michael Stipe Teases His First Ever Solo Song", "Hear a 10-Second Teaser of New Solo Material from R.E.M. March 25, 2020. ", Stipe's peripatetic upbringing may hold some clues to his elusiveness. I don't know.". So we went for something completely different, something more circus-like and over the top. He is wearing a reefer jacket, jeans, work boots, an ethnic-looking scarf, a snug woolly hat and a full beard. Our worst records, we just shot ourselves in the foot it was usually internal stuff that was happening. Sometimes, the three members just couldnt agree on what an REM song was: Everything gets run through me, so they had frustrations about things that never got recorded or turned into songs, and I got frustrated by being given songs with chord progressions that were impossible to write to., Accelerate, to an outsider at least, sounded like Bucks album, guitars jangling. Calling from Athens, Georgia, in October 2021, Stipe is busier than ever. My haircut during that tour should indicate my state of mind: it was the four worst haircuts of the 1980s combined into one.. [16] In 1988 Stipe campaigned for the Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and in 2004 the group put their weight behind the doomed Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on their Vote For Change tour. ", As has been pointed out before, Michael Stipe is not your regular rock'n'roll star. We own the masters to our Warner Bros records. One version, recorded in a collaboration with Coldplay's Chris Martin, reached number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. "Michael looked at Mike, and Mike said, 'Sounds right to me.' That's how it was decided." In an interview with the Guardian, shortly after the band announced their split, Stipe refused to. "It's the tiny staircase between his atelier and his sleeping quarters. We talk for a while about the etymology of the word "queer", and I ask him why he finds it more acceptable than the word "gay". Stipe has a keen eye, as evidenced by his photography work, and photography has been a lifelong passion of his. [25][26], Bill Berry left R.E.M. It's a moment-of-discovery song, about discovering oneself and suddenly feeling this huge sense of possibility. His father served as a helicopter pilot in Korea and Vietnam. He looks healthy, which he has not always done. R.E.M. In The Lifting, she was seeking help, Stipe says. When the interviewer asked Stipe what's the closest he's come to death, he gave a terse answer with no exposition. ", The band, all teenage friends from Athens, Georgia, survived that particular trauma, as well as the departure of an original member, drummer Bill Berry, who quit in 1997, a few years after collapsing from a brain aneurysm onstage in Switzerland. Michael Stipe's age is 63 years old as of today's date 27th February 2023 having been born on 4 January 1960. Since then, I never looked back.[15]. In a way, that's all I've got. It was glam rock, basically. What do you most dislike about your appearance?My skin and my swayback. [8] His younger sister, Lynda Stipe, was born in 1962 and became the vocalist of her own band, Hetch Hetchy. Could he talk me through it? REM in 2001, with Peter Buck on the right. It was the money, the politics, having to meet new people 24 hours a day, not being in charge of my own decisions., Buck said the decision to end the band came during the making of the 2011 album Collapse Into Now, when Michael Stipe told his Buck and bassist Mike Mills: I need to be away from this for a long time., And I said, How about forever? Buck said in Rolling Stone. It's the 21st century," he concludes. Records for the release of the Chronic Town EP one year later. Grunge had happened, and there was something very freeing in that as well. Does he consider himself an obsessive? . Personal Life: Affair, Girlfriends, Wife, Kids. [34] He appeared with Chris Martin of Coldplay live at Madison Square Garden and online to perform "Losing My Religion" in the 12-12-12 concert raising money for relief from Hurricane Sandy. [49] He was also credited as a producer of the 2004 film Saved![50]. In addition to co-producing most of R.E.M. 's output, Stipe has also produced the following: Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. There is a sincerity to what I am doing. As the owner of two film production companies, C-00 and Single Cell Pictures, he has been credited as a producer on the likes of 'Being John Malkovich', 2004 comedy 'Saved!' Born in Georgia, Michael Stipe, 60, became REMs frontman in 1980. Martin Luther King Jr. Marlon Brando and Wally Cox. On Tuesday (March 24), Bill Rieflin passed away after a long battle with cancer at age 59. He. You use your synapses differently," he said. Everyone I slept with before the age of 27, orn in Georgia, Michael Stipe, 60, became REMs frontman in 1980. "I would look out from the stage at the Reagan youth. It often seemed to me that, as a fledgling songwriter, he was perpetually at war with the obvious, a stance that almost flew in the face of his ability to write great pop songs with big hooks. Even before then, Stipe seemed troubled by the whirlwind of fame, struggling to make sense of the stadium tours that followed 1987's hit single "The One I Love". Singer Michael Stipe quit drugs and cleaned himself up after his lover died in a car crash in the 1980s - as a tribute to her. No one would ever know about it. I said: Theres not enough money in the world. And he said: Thank you Im a huge fan, and I wanted to know you couldnt be bought. And I thought, thats cool, and thats manipulative, and fuck you. My father was a career army man, having been to Vietnam twice and Korea once. There were a lot of things that led up to it. The tipping point came in 1991, with the release of their seventh album, Out of Time, and its stirring hit single, "Losing My Religion". Let that sink in, and now wrap your head around how truly powerful music can be. Multi-talented Michael Stipe is an American singer, songwriter, musician, film producer, music video director, visual artist, and philanthropist. The REM frontman on smoking, Susan Sontag and how it feels to be in love. How did that feel? Why go to a warehouse?, He also warned fans not to expect a series of posthumous REM albums featuring unreleased tracks. The song was finished and released in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. That was after a periodof spiralling rumours that he was HIV positive. Even his father, a seasoned military man, thought his teenage son was dead, Stipe said. and most recently, 2017 drama 'En el sptimo da'. The band issued its debut single, "Radio Free Europe," on Hib-Tone; it was a college radio success. The middle eight of that is completely taken from INXS and from Michael. That's an example of something that just hit me, then I became fascinated with it, and then it became enough of a nagging obsession to be turned into a piece.". released its debut album, Murmur, which was acclaimed by critics. And this was the (Ronald) Reagan years, where they were talking about internment camps for HIV-positive people and people with AIDS. Which book changed your life?On Photography, by Susan Sontag, which I read in my early 20s. Stipe lives with his partner, Thomas Dozol, in New York and Berlin. After news broke of his passing, R.E.M. Stipe insisted that many of his early lyrics were "nonsense," saying in a 1994 online chat, "You all know there aren't words, per se, to a lot of the early stuff. [44] In 2018, Stipe released a book of his photography entitled Volume 1,[45] which featured 35 photographs of such celebrities as River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain. "My second home, for sure. "In 1987 and '88 there was nothing to do but be active. That was when REM went beyond the freaks, the fags, the fat girls, the art students and the indie music fanatics. With the artworks, it's more a need to create, to express myself in another form. You'll find his music on the soundtrack to several films, but did you know that Stipe has also turned his hand to production? The first encounter was way back in 1988, when REM's sixth album, Green, was just about to cross over into the mainstream charts. Stipe has made a number of acting appearances on film and on television. Michael Stipe first heard the Velvet Underground when, as an Army brat living in Southern Illinois, he happened upon the band's music in the sale bin. Kevin Spacey eventually made it his, of course, but Stipe told Alec Baldwin on his podcast that Fincher had approached him, but he had to turn it down because REM were due to tour 'Monster' at the same time. The grades range from 1 to 4. Michael generally didnt finish songs if he didnt like them. The article featured a photo of Patti Smith, who Stipe came to idolize. A malignant brain tumour is a cancerous growth in the brain. Photograph: Steve Pyke for the Observer, Michael Stipe: 'I often find myself at a loss for words', ichael Stipe wanders into the lobby of the Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan, looking flustered. "On a sliding scale of sexuality I'd place myself around 80-20, but I definitely prefer men to women. Also during his lifetime, as Stipe told The Guardian in 2020, he came close to death three times. The classic REM lineup: guitarist Peter Buck, singer Michael Stipe, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. It features that favourite edition encased in a Plexiglas box. When I met Andy Warhol, he called me a pop star. ET on Saturday (February 25, 2023), our beloved singer . ", He is currently working on a replica of a Brancusi staircase. In 2004 he said of his father: "I couldn't relate to my father's experiences, or the troops in Iraq who'd been at war, until 9/11. It's like something I have to get out of me. To not realise, you feel like such a dum-dum. In the period 1990-1992 Stipe was involved with the band Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. The grade tells your health care team how quickly the cells are growing and multiplying. Existential., Michael Stipe: Who would I say sorry to? Last year he curated an exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of Jean Genet's birth, which he tells me was "kind of like a queer history but from a peripheral point of view, but also about what might have happened if Genet and queer culture had impacted on me more". It took years for that to land on me but the impact when it did was incredible. It showed me that I could disagree with someone smarter than myself. It contained, he said, everything except writing songs, playing songs and recording them. Published May 04, 2022. [33] Also in 2006, Stipe appeared on the song "Broken Promise" on the Placebo release Meds. It kind of terrifies me. Will REM inevitably come out against the Tea Party? It was a Thursday. 's Michael Stipe Avoided Death Three Times. In 1985, R.E.M. What is a brain tumor? Unfortunately it didn't come to pass before Cobain's death in April of that year. It was granted the phrase return to form by reviewers. Then, I threw up. When were you happiest?Can I say: maybe tomorrow? His current obsession, he says, is "making replica pieces in bronze or birch plywood" of objects that hold a particular and personal fascination for him. Stipe's vocals and lyrics received particular attention from listeners. We always wanted to make a rock record. It was our version of rock music, Stipe says. They probably held lots of my world views in great disregard, and I had to look out on that and think, well, what do I do with this? When he submits his eight favourite REM songs for this feature, there is not one . [42] "Drive to the Ocean" was released for his 60th birthday on January 4, 2020. Symptoms include: headaches these are often the first symptom of a brain tumour. RW Fassbinder and Patrice Chreau. Heads turn. What is the closest youve come to death?Scarlet fever, 1962. "I had to grapple with a lot of contradictions back in the 80s," he says, frowning. Michael Stipe, formerly of R.E.M., turns 60 on January 4th and he'll be releasing his second solo single 'Drive to the Ocean' on the day. Gaining weight and acting eccentrically (such as by shaving his hair into a monk's tonsure), Stipe later identified himself as suffering from depression and exhaustion during this period, saying "I was well on my way to losing my mind. Like the elusive, oddball actor, Stipe gives the impression of existing entirely inside his own self-contained universe. Find out where to watch your favourite movies & TV series in Ireland. Michael Rietmulder Seattle Times music writer Veteran Seattle musician Bill Rieflin has died at age 59. NEW: Michael Stipe Volume 3 now out on Damiani OUT NOW: "No Time for Love Like Now" by Michael Stipe & Big Red Machine "Drive to the Ocean" is now on streaming services Drive to the Ocean. They include a Polaroid camera, a microcassette and a newspaper. Maybe that comes from travelling as much as I did as a child with my father [who was in the army] and my mother. I hate and refuse to apply the term bisexual to myself. Tell us a jokeWhats brown and sticky?A stick. Michael Stipe is always, well, Stipeish. Possessing a distinctive voice, Stipe has been noted for the "mumbling" style of his early career. Michael Stipe is an American musician who is best known as the lead singer for the band R.E.M., and he has worked as a producer on films including 'Being John Malkovich ' and 'Man on the Moon.'. [68] Stipe sings in "wailing, keening, arching vocal figures" that R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe wrote a touching tribute to his bandmate and friend on the band's Instagram. Stipe possesses a baritone vocal range. Stipe Junior once recalled how the family would gather nightly around the television to watch the news from Vietnam in the late 60s, their mother instructing him and his two sisters to look closely at the footage to see if they could spot their father. Michael Stipe, musician, artist and collector, at home in Athens, Ga., with his feet on a blue fox he made in 2008, bronze with powdercoat. A brain tumor is a collection, or mass, of abnormal cells in your brain. We could probably put out an album of stuff that we thought was too mediocre to be on the original records, he says. Possessing a distinctive voice, Stipe has been noted for the "mumbling" style of his early career. And, as always, it is Stipe's elliptical lyrics that, depending on where you stand, are the most intriguing or the most annoying aspect of the whole. [2] Stipe often harmonizes with Mills in songs; in the chorus for "Stand", Mills and Stipe alternate singing lyrics, creating a dialogue. "I find myself often at a loss for words," he muses at one point. His real name is John. I had to examine that., The original longlist of songs Stipe gave to the Guardian for this feature contained three from Around the Sun. The band is planning a farewell tour. What did you want to be when you were growing up?Archaeologist, pop star, store cashier. His role in the songwriting process for R.E.M. I had sex with, and enjoyed sex with, women until I met someone that I fell in love with, and who is now my boyfriend. He has had a long career as a visual artist, and a . I'm skinny. Another wobble occurred in 2001 when guitarist Peter Buck was arrested for drunkenly assaulting two British Airways stewards in a violent struggle over a pot of yoghurt on a flight to London. Automatic for the People dealt with "mortality and dying. Michael Stipe, Drive to the Ocean, No Time for Love Like Now. "Michael Stipe and the Ageless Boys of R.E.M. R.E.M. Though, he is 1.75 m tall, he weighs about 82 kg. He even found himself shooting down rumors that he had AIDS. He also appeared as a guest on the Cartoon Network talk show spoof Space Ghost Coast to Coast in the episode "Hungry." How would you like to be remembered?As kind, unafraid and boldly vulnerable and immensely talented, like, mega supernova level. frontman, who came out as gay in 1994, said he believed the other members of the band knew about his sexuality long before he came out. February 20, 2023. The name of his home town is Decatur, Georgia, United States. "It tore my limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order," he once said, "It was like, 'Shit! A man walks past and shouts "Michael Stipe!" Michael looked at Mike, and Mike said, Sounds right to me. Thats how it was decided., In an interview with the Guardian, shortly after the band announced their split, Stipe refused to discuss whose idea it had been. the baddie) in David Fincher's 'Se7en' back in 1995. Those with acting roles in the film included Levine, Stipe, his sister Lynda, Matthew Sweet (who formed a short-lived duo, Community Trolls, with Michael Stipe),[28] and R.E.M. The relationship between a band and their devoted fan base is awe-inspiring. Even more intriguing is "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I", a kind of meta-pop song that references a Neil Young number called "Pocahontas". But I dont think about it much., REM interview: 'There's a good chance we'll never play together again', Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. He has not lost his facility for arresting titles. Keeping people either so uneducated or distracted that they are not able to really form a valuable, educated choice is a great weapon. Last October, Stipe. As we come to the end of the interview, I tell Stipe he gives off a different kind of energy these days. He is wearing a reefer jacket, jeans, work boots, an ethnic-looking scarf, a snug woolly hat and a full beard. weakness on one side or part of the body. He was charming but elusive to the point of cryptic like his songs, in fact. As it turned out, Im a pretty good pop star. "[71], "That voice. Now its name-dropping. John Michael Stipe (/stap/; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of alternative rock band R.E.M. Jason Kempin/Getty Images. It wasnt like we had 20 songs to choose from for every album. The band's 'Monster' tour was dogged with bad luck. I think Brancusi is a huge presence, perhaps even the greatest artist of the 20th century. As always of late, they walk a tightrope between a signature and a formula. Michael Stipe's studio, on the Lower East Side, is hidden behind a sliding metal security door. He speaks quietly in small, quick flurries of words that often do not cohere into sentences. Stipe has appeared as himself with R.E.M. [20] Stipe was the youngest member of the band. His senior photo is pictured in the album art work of Eponymous. Please try again later. But I felt there just wasn't a place for me. Stipe and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain were firm friends; Stipe is even the godfather of Frances Bean Cobain. Summary. The song, "Rio Grande," is taken from Johnny Depp's pirate-themed album, Son of Rogue's Gallery. What do you consider your greatest achievement?Deciding what I wanted to do at 15 and, against all odds, doing it. He was born in Decatur, Georgia in 1960, the son of a serviceman whose constant relocations took the family across America, from Alabama to Illinois, as well as to Germany. When asked if he ever declares himself as gay, Stipe stated, "I don't. Brain tumors can develop in any part of the brain or skull, including its protective lining, the underside of the brain (), the brainstem, the sinuses and the nasal cavity, and many other areas. In 2019, Stipe told The Guardian a bit more about his childhood brush with death. Be right there., Around the Suns recording was interrupted by REM having to compile a best-of. It's entirely made up, but it's sincere. Drummer Bill Berry Suffers Aneurysm on Stage. Hypothermia, 1974. Michael Stipe, the lead vocalist for the band R.E.M., has led quite a life. Back then, his singing style was best evoked by the title of REM's debut album, Murmur, released in 1983. 's visual aspect, often selecting album artwork and directing many of the band's music videos. He has American citizenship. Stipe confirmed in 2021 that they had no plans to reunite.[27]. He looks healthy, which he has not always done. In 1998, he worked on Single Cell Pictures, a film production company that released several arthouse / indie movies. [11][12] In 1978, he graduated from high school in Collinsville, Illinois. In fact, Michael gave her a leg-up in the industry by inviting her to open for one of his pre-REM bands in 1980. When people remind me of something, I have to stop and say: Give me the city first. I am not on the [autistic] spectrum, but the way my brain organises things is different from regular people: give me the place and my recall improves by 200%. Continuing his non-R.E.M. dropped out of school in 1980 to focus on the new band. When Michael Stipe was the lead singer and lyricist for the band R.E.M, it was clear he had talents and interests beyond music. Im really a little embarrassed by the term rock star. "I've been watching the Empire State Building change colour," he says, gazing dreamily out of the window, as I arrive in the room the record company has booked for the afternoon. Stipe was chosen as the godfather of Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Yeah! We had fulfilled our contract and it had become evident to us that it was time to either let it devolve into silliness, which none of us wanted, or make the difficult decision of walking away from it on our own terms and let that be that. "I'm working something out for sure. Allen Ginsberg. I didnt know the bass player made the low notes until the second album I was that naive about music and how its made. By the time of Green, the slightly nerdy group from Athens, Georgia, had become stars, and the intensely shy Stipe had to change the way he worked, especially live. ", One of his pieces is called My Favourite Ever Edition of the New York Times. I'm very proud of him for that. ", He pauses and thinks for a while. In a new interview for New York public radio station WNYC, Sti It was going back to T Rex and Mott the Hoople and pulling it forward into where grunge was, post-Achtung Baby. Since the mid-1980s, Stipe has sung in "wailing, keening, arching vocal figures" that R.E.M.