R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe reveals band “will never reunite”

Yesterday (21 September) marked the 10th anniversary since R.E.M. called it a day, and while appearing on WNYC’s All Of It with Alison Stewart, lead singer Michael Stipe said there's no chance they'll get back together.

When speaking about a Rolling Stone article that claimed there's a 30% chance of R.E.M. reuniting, Stipe said, "That’s wishful thinking. We will never reunite."

He expanded, "We decided when we split up that that would just be really tacky and probably money-grabbing, which might be the impetus for a lot of bands to get back together. We don’t really need that. And I’m really happy that we have the legacy of 32 years of work that we have from 1980 to 2011."

Reflecting on the anniversary of their break-up, Stipe added, "Anniversaries mean a lot to me. It’s been ten years since R.E.M. called it a day, and that’s bittersweet of course for all of us. But I’m really proud as a band and as great friends that we decided to do what we did when we did it. It’s weird to me to think it’s been an entire decade since we called it a day."

Back in August a 25th anniversary reissue of R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi was announced. It'll include the newly remastered album tracks, 13 b-sides and rarities, and a 64-minute outdoor projection film (which was shown on buildings in five cities to promote the original release in 1996).