It’s every Georgia music fan’s dream to see Athens rock icons R.E.M. on stage again performing their incredible songs.
The band broke up in 2011, and all four original members haven’t played together publicly since 2007.
The guys have been spotted while hanging out over the past year at 40th anniversary tribute events for their 1982 EP Chronic Town and debut album, Murmur (1983).
But Thursday night, drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and singer Michael Stipe finally did it: Inside New York City’s Marriott Marquis during their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, R.E.M. delivered a stirring acoustic version of its Grammy-winning 1991 song “Losing My Religion,” leaving fans around the world breathless with anticipation for more of its yearning melodies and guitar power chords tied together by Stipe’s poetic lyrics about the human condition and political and social ideals.
‘Friends for life’
Speaking together on CBS Mornings, R.E.M. made it clear that the group has no plans to reform permanently, and each member is busy with his own path, including a new photo book and solo album on the horizon from Stipe and a July tour featuring Mills and Buck in their side supergroup, the Baseball Project.
On stage after receiving the award at the songwriters ceremony from an elated Jason Isbell, who had just performed R.E.M.’s prophetic 1987 tongue-twister, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” Michael Stipe said, “Writing songs and having a catalog of work that we’re all proud of, that is out there for the whole world for the rest of time, is hands down the most important aspect of what we did as a band. Second to that is that we managed to do so for all these decades and remain friends. And not just friends, but dear friends. Friends for life.”
This article appears on Now Habersham in partnership with GPB News
