Michael Stipe

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Michael Stipe

Michael Stipe performing at South by Southwest in 2008

Background information

Birth name

John Michael Stipe

Born

January 4, 1960 (age 54)

Decatur, Georgia, United States

Genres

Alternative rock, college rock,jangle pop

Occupation(s)

Musician, lyricist, producer,visual artist

Instruments

Vocals, guitar

Years active

1980present

Associated acts

R.E.M., Automatic Baby

John Michael Stipe (born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, lyricist, film producer
and visual artist. He was the lead singer of the alternative rock band R.E.M. from their
formation in 1980 until their dissolution in 2011.
Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well
as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image, often
selecting album artwork and directing many of the band's music videos. Outside the music
industry, he runs his own film production companies: C-00 and Single Cell Pictures.
Contents
[hide]

1 Life and career

o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 Formation of R.E.M.
o 1.3 Personal life
o 1.4 Projects
2 Musical style
3 Film and television work
4 Discography
5 References
6 Notes
7 External links

Life and career[edit]

Early life[edit]
Stipe was born in Decatur, Georgia, on January 4, 1960. Stipe was a military brat; his
father was a serviceman in the United States Army whose career resulted in frequent
relocations for his family. His younger sister, Lynda Stipe, was born in 1962 and would
become the vocalist of her own band Hetch Hetchy.[1] Stipe and his family moved to various
locales during his childhood, includingGermany, Texas, Illinois, Alabama and Georgia. He
was raised Methodist. Stipe graduated from high school in Collinsville, Illinois, in 1978. His
senior photo is pictured in the album art work of Eponymous. Stipe also worked at the
local Waffle House. Stipe enrolled at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, as an art
major, studying photography and painting.

Formation of R.E.M.[edit]
Main article: R.E.M.
While attending college in Athens, Stipe frequented the Wuxtry record shop, where he met
store clerk Peter Buck in 1980. "He was a striking-looking guy and he also bought weird
records, which not everyone in the store did", Buck recalled. The two became friends and
eventually decided to form a band.[2] Buck and Stipe started writing music together;[3] at the
time Stipe also spent time in a local group named Gangster.[4] The pair were soon joined
by Bill Berry and Mike Mills and named themselves R.E.M., a name Stipe selected at
random from a dictionary.[5]
All four members of R.E.M. dropped out of school in 1980 to focus on the band.[6] Stipe was
the last to do so. The band issued its debut single, "Radio Free Europe", on Hib-Tone,
which was a college radio success. The band signed to I.R.S. Records for the release of
the Chronic Town EP one year later. R.E.M. released its debut album Murmur in 1983,
which was widely acclaimed by critics. Stipe's vocals and lyrics received particular attention
from listeners.[7] Murmur went on to win the Rolling Stone Critics Poll Album of the Year
over Michael Jackson's Thriller. Their second album, Reckoning, followed in 1984.
In 1985, R.E.M. traveled to England to record its third album Fables of the Reconstruction,
a difficult process that brought the band to the verge of a break up.[8] After the album was

released, relationships in the band remained tense. Gaining weight and acting eccentrically
(such as by shaving his hair into a monk's tonsure), Stipe said of the period, "I was well on
my way to losing my mind".[9]
On September 21, 2011, R.E.M. announced its retirement in a news release on its
website.[10][11]

Personal life[edit]
With the success of the albums Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992),
R.E.M. became mainstream music stars. Around 1992, rumors that Stipe had
contractedHIV began to circulate. According to Stipe, he did not start the rumor and he
does not know who did.
Not that I can tell. I wore a hat that said 'White House Stop AIDS'. Im skinny. Ive always
been skinny, except in 1985 when I looked like Marlon Brando, the last time I shaved my
head. I was really sick then. Eating potatoes. I think AIDS hysteria would obviously and
naturally extend to people who are media figures and anybody of indecipherable or
unpronounced sexuality. Anybody who looks gaunt, for whatever reason. Anybody who is
associated, for whatever reason whether it's a hat, or the way I carry myself as being
queer-friendly.
Michael Stipe, [12]
In 1994, with questions still swirling about his sexuality, Stipe described himself as "an
equal opportunity lech," and said he did not define himself as gay, straight, or bisexual, but
that he was attracted to, and had relationships with, both men and women. In 1995, he
appeared on the cover of Out magazine. Stipe described himself as a "queer artist"
inTime in 2001 and revealed that he had been in a relationship with "an amazing man" for
three years at that point.[13] Stipe reiterated this in a 2004 interview with Butt magazine.
When asked if he ever declares himself as gay, Stipe stated, "I dont. I think theres a line
drawn between gay and queer, and for me, queer describes something thats more
inclusive of the grey areas."[14]
In 1999, author Douglas A. Martin published a novel, Outline of My Lover, in which the
narrator has a six-year romantic relationship with the unnamed lead singer of a successful
Athens, Georgia-based, rock band; the book was widely speculated, and later confirmed by
its author, to have been a roman clef based on a real relationship between Martin and
Stipe.[15][16] The two had previously collaborated on two books, both in 1998: The Haiku
Year (for which the two had both contributed haikus)[17] and Martin's book of poetryServicing
the Salamander (for which Stipe took the cover photograph).
Stipe also owns the Athens, Georgia building that houses The Grit vegetarian restaurant.
He shares a TriBeCa loft in New York with his partner, photographer Thomas Dozol.

Stipe at Glastonbury Festival with his "Goblin" make up

Projects[edit]
In September 1983, a few months after the release of the R.E.M.'s debut album, Stipe
participated in a low-budget, forty-five-minute Super-8 film called Just Like a Movie, shot in
Athens by New York Rocker magazine photographer Laura Levine, who was a friend of the
band. Those with acting roles in the film included Levine, Stipe, Lynda Stipe (Michael's
sister), Matthew Sweet (of whom co-formed the short-lived duo group,Community Trolls,
with Michael Stipe),[18] and R.E.M.'s Bill Berry.[19] The film remains unreleased.
Stipe had planned a collaboration with friend, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, in 1994; partly in an
attempt to lure Cobain away from his home and his drug addiction. However, they did not
manage to compose or record anything before Cobain's death. Stipe was chosen as the
godfather of Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. R.E.M. recorded
the song "Let Me In" from the 1994 album Monster in tribute to Cobain.
Stipe was once very close to fellow singer Natalie Merchant and has recorded a few songs
with her, including one titled "Photograph" which appeared on a pro-choice benefit album
titled Born to Choose, and they appeared live with Peter Gabriel singing Gabriel's single
"Red Rain" at the 1996 VH1 Honors.
Stipe and Tori Amos became friends in the mid-1990s and recorded a duet in 1994 called
"It Might Hurt a Bit" for the Don Juan DeMarco motion picture soundtrack. Both Stipe and
Amos decided to keep it in the vaults, though it was later slated to appear on the Empire
Records motion picture soundtrack in 1995. The song remains unreleased and unheard.
In 1998, Stipe published a collection called Two Times Intro: On the Road with Patti
Smith. In 2006, Stipe released an EP that comprised six different cover versions of Joseph
Arthur's "In The Sun" for the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief fund. One version, recorded in
a collaboration with Coldplay's Chris Martin, reached number one on the Canadian Singles
Chart.[20] Also in 2006, Stipe appeared on the song "Broken Promise" on
the Placebo release Meds. Continuing his non-R.E.M. work in 2006, Stipe sang the song
"L'Htel" on the tribute album to Serge Gainsbourg titled Monsieur Gainsbourg
Revisited and appeared on the song "Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano" on the New York
Dollsalbum One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. He recorded a song
with Miguel Bose on the Album Papito "Lo que ves es lo que hay".
In 2008, Stipe collaborated with Lacoste to release his own "holiday collector edition" brand
of polo shirt. The design depicts a concert audience from the view of the performer on
stage.[21]
In 2011, Stipe participated in a live online Facebook chat with fans following the premiere of
a new R.E.M. video on Dazed & Confused's website, Dazed Digital. The video for "Walk It
Back" was taken from R.E.M.'s 15th album, Collapse into Now.[22]
In 2012, Stipe 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.
In 2013 a new recording from Stipe was revealed featuring Courtney Love. The song, "Rio
Grande", is taken from Johnny Depp's upcoming pirate themed album Son of Rogue's
Gallery.[23]
On April 10, 2014, Stipe inducted the American grunge band Nirvana into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame.
In June, 2014, it was reported that Stipe had create