23.06.03
Stipe
contemplated REM break-up
REM
lead singer Michael Stipe tells this week's Radio Times that writer's
block and the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997 almost ruined
the super group. "Before I would have found that unthinkable,
but once I confronted it, I was fine," he says. I'm wildly
insecure in the studio and need a lot of support, and I wasn't getting
that from Mike and Peter, and we all just shut down."
Stipe also accuses the music business of being ageist. "It's
a mystery to me why the music business is fixated with age, as if
you suddenly stop being relevant or capable of making music,"
Stipe claims. "Keanu Reeves is three years younger than me,
Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise are both within two years. Well, hello!
I don't think they're asked these questions. I think it's insulting."
The
43-year old superstar also tells Radio Times that he doesn't feel
as though he's improved as a musician over the band's 20-year history.
"When you go to see REM you can be guaranteed that at least
one time in every song I'm going to sing the wrong note, and it's
up to the audience to sing the Right note to carry me through,"
he says.
He
also praises U2 front man Bono for the work he's done towards eradicating
Third World debt and Aids in Africa but admits he could never place
himself in that type of spotlight. "I could never do that,
" Stipe says of the U2 singer. "If you know him, it makes
sense that it's something he would do. If you know me, it makes
sense that I would back off and be a little different in my approach."
"I'm
still trying to write a great song and a great album of songs,"
he says.
This
interview is taken from the 28 June-4 July issue of Radio Times,
on sale on Tuesday 24 June.
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