R.E.M. say they will never reunite: “It’d never be as good”
In a recent interview with CBS Mornings, R.E.M. came together for their first group interview in nearly 30 years. However, despite the reunion for the show, the band reiterated that there won’t be a reunion on stage.
R.E.M. officially split in 2011 but were realistically separated much longer. Their last performance was way back in 2007 at their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, while they kept releasing albums after their date. But after their 15th album, Collapse Into Now, the band announced that they were calling it quits.
“All things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way,” Michael Stipe said at the time in 2011, and that remains their line today as they reaffirmed that they won’t be getting back together.
As they came together for the interview, it’s clear that Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills remain on good terms. However, that relationship is perhaps protected by their decision to not work together anymore.
“At that point, there wasn’t anything we could agree on, really, musically,” Buck said of their split. “What kind of music, how to record it, are we going to go on tour, you know? We could barely agree on where to go to dinner,” he continued, adding, “And now, we can just agree on where to go to dinner.”
To Stipe, their firm and unfaltering decision to stop playing together has protected their legacy too, as he said, “We’re also here to tell the tale, and we’re sitting at the same table together with deep admiration and … lifelong friendship. A lot of people that do this can’t claim that.”
Their decision not to reunite is also about protecting their musical legacy. R.E.M. don’t want to be one of those bands that tarnish their memory with a weakened comeback, so they’d rather not have one at all. “It’d never be as good,” Peter Buck said plainly.
From the very start of the split in 2011, this has been their official line. They’ve always rejected the idea of a comeback or reunion tour, claiming it would be nothing but petty cash grabbing. In 2021, Stipe said, “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.”
When asked what would have to happen to get the band back together, the impossibility was the butt of the joke. “A comet,” Mills laughed. “Superglue,” Berry added. So we won’t be seeing an R.E.M. comeback unless something supernatural happens.
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