The moment REM drummer Bill Berry knew the band had “made it”
REM grew out of the unique college rock scene of Athens, Georgia, and eventually became its best-known graduates. When the band first came together on the campus of the University of Georgia in 1980, though, they didn’t necessarily feel in-step with the local vibe that The B-52s had helped inspire, specifically, the conceptual punk-funk experimentation of groups like Pylon, Side Effects, and the Method Actors.
“We didn’t really fit in with that scene,” former REM drummer Bill Berry told Newsday in 1988, noting that he and bassist Mike Mills were already seasoned musicians and not as accustomed to the methods of the avant-garde. “The ‘art bands’ didn’t think what we were doing was real cool… The thing [in Athens] was to pick up an instrument, tune it a weird way, then go out and present ‘art’.”
To be clear, Berry and the rest of REM were huge fans of Pylon and many of their other Athens contemporaries, but they ultimately succeeded by sticking more to their own sound—a more melodic, jangly guitar template tinged with a bit of the mysterious and Southern Gothic, courtesy of frontman Michael Stipe. It’d be more romantic to say that the band had to earn their stripes over a long learning curve, but, in actuality, they were the new local heroes straight out of the gates.
“I think it’s safe to say there was some resentment [from the other bands],” Berry recalled, “We became popular in Athens overnight. We played one party, and after that we sold out every other show we ever did in Athens.”
Soon enough, the band started playing shows further afield, and by 1981, they’d signed a recording deal with IRS Records. However, it wasn’t until after the release of their debut full-length album, 1983’s Murmur, that Bill Berry first returned to Athens feeling like his band had truly conquered its hometown, at least for a brief moment.
“We were playing Legion Field, an outdoor show right in the middle of campus,” he told Newsday. “I’m walking through campus to go to the sound check, and all these people are looking at me, waving, and I’m going, ‘yeah!’”
Berry suddenly got a swagger in his step, convinced that REM had “made it” and that he’d officially become a bona fide “rock star”.
“So I’m turning a corner,” he continued, “And you know how you sense someone’s behind you, so you turn around out of curiosity? Well, walking two steps behind me, the guy everyone is looking at all the way through campus is Herschel Walker.”
Yes, Berry’s old schoolmates hadn’t actually recognised him at all. They’d been ogling the popular star of the Georgia Bulldogs football team, the 6-foot-1 running back and future NFL star Herschel Walker, better known to Americans these days as a prominent MAGA supporter of Donald Trump and the loser of the 2022 Georgia senatorial race.
Herschel Walker probably doesn’t know who Bill Berry is to this day, but for one moment 40 years ago, he provided the young REM drummer with a useful piece of the humble pie. He hadn’t become a rock star just yet, but it was close on the horizon.
