R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe has given an update on his debut solo album, admitting that it has “taken longer than I wanted”.
The singer has only released a handful of songs under his own name since his former band split amicably in 2011, including ‘I Played The Fool’ with Andrew Watt, Josh Klinghoffer and Travis Barker earlier this week for the new show Rooster.
He has, however, been working on his first solo album for several years and in a new interview with The Times, he has given fans some significant updates on the record’s progress.
“I’m working on a solo album,” he said. “But it’s taken longer than I wanted.”
Explaining the delays, he continued: “Covid didn’t help, but I’m finishing it. When the band split, I just needed a break. I took five years but I got pulled back into music. It’s been a struggle. That’s the main thing. I want it to be great, but I’ve got the pressure of having been in R.E.M. and it’s a high bar, because I want this to be as good as that, and that’s near impossible.”
“So it’s fucking exciting but also terrifying, and I’m doing the music for the first time too, and I think I’m good at it but not great,” he added. “But I love my voice. I don’t like my speaking voice but I love my singing voice, and I so want to immerse myself back into offering music to the world.”
The interview also revealed that Stipe has still got eight songs to finish before the record is complete, but he is working to a deadline and he hopes that it will be released before the end of 2026. He also quipped that it might be titled ‘Meet THE Michael Stipe’.
Previous Stipe solo releases include the 2019 single ‘Your Capricious Soul’ and ‘Drive To The Ocean’ the following year. He also released ‘No Time For Love Like Now’ with Aaron Dessner’s Big Red Machine in 2020.
By all accounts, Stipe remains on good terms with his former R.E.M. bandmates – guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry – and they appeared together in summer 2024 when they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
At that ceremony, the quartet gave a surprise acoustic performance of their 1991 classic ‘Losing My Religion’. That marked the first time the four played live together since their 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Earlier this month, Stipe joined Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy at one of their ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ 40th anniversary tour shows in Brooklyn. They played versions of R.E.M.’s ‘These Days’ and ‘The Great Beyond’. A year ago, he also sang ‘Pretty Persuasion’ with them.
Stipe has also been clarifying lyrics from ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’ on Bluesky, revealing that many fans have been getting some of the lines wrong for decades.
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