R.E.M.’s Four Original Members Perform For First Time Since 2007
R.E.M.’s original four members Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry performed in public tonight (June 13) for the first time since 2007 to celebrate their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The group played their early ’90s classic “Losing My Religion” as part of the ceremony at New York’s Marriott Marquis Hotel, during which Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, producer Timbaland and songwriters Hillary Lindsey and Dean Pitchford were also inducted into the SHOF.
R.E.M. were inducted tonight by fellow onetime Athens, Ga., resident Jason Isbell, who also performed the group’s “It’s The End of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” at the ceremony.
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Berry stepped away from the band in 1997 after suffering a brain aneurysm, and R.E.M. continued with the core trio of Stipe, Buck and Mills before splitting for good in 2011. However, Berry did join his bandmates onstage at a handful of R.E.M. shows in the ensuing years, including at the 2005 wedding of their longtime roadie DeWitt Burton and, most recently, at the group’s 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
During his speech tonight, Stipe gave particular thanks to longtime R.E.M. manager Bertis Downs for helping the band find “space to be able to create, to follow our gut, to follow our instincts, to disappear into the music, to not have to be concerned with aspects of the industry that would have or could have prevented us from focusing on the most important part: the songwriting and the songs.” Downs was in the room for the honor and was one of the first to post on social media that the band members were actually playing together onstage.
R.E.M. have repeatedly turned down increasingly lucrative offers to reunite, but have been active participants in promoting a string of back catalog reissues over the past decade. Stipe has also been working for years on his first solo album, but sources tell SPIN there’s no timetable for its release.
In February, the original quartet was present at the 40 Watt Club in Athens to watch actor/singer Michael Shannon and guitarist Jason Narducy perform R.E.M.’s 1983 debut, Murmur, in its entirety. Buck, Mills and Berry all played with the musicians throughout the night; Stipe came onstage to thank the stunned audience but did not sing.
Earlier this week, Stipe, Buck, Mills and Berry filmed an interview with CBS’ Anthony Mason to discuss the SHOF honor, and also insisted they would not reunite. “It’d never be as good,” Buck said.
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