In an exclusive interview, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills tells Rolling Stone why the band decided to call it quits after 31 years. “It’s not because we have to or we can’t stand each other or we suck,” Mills says. “We’re happy. But we’re done.”
Mitch Easter producing Game Theory's Lolita Nation. L-R, Mitch Easter, Michael Quercio (3 O:Clock) and Scott Miller (Game Theory). Shot by Robert Toren 1986 San Francisco, California
“There is sadness because I will never play on the same stage as Peter and Michael again,” Mills tells Rolling Stone’s David Fricke. Yet, Mills insists, “We’re doing this for good reasons, and we end up looking back at all the fun, the joy and the incredible opportunities we had.”
R.E.M. actually made their decision a few months ago, before they met in Athens, Georgia, this summer to record three new songs for a greatest-hits package. The band delayed the announcement because “a lot of people are affected by this decision in a serious way,” Mills says, referring to R.E.M.’s staff and crew. “We wanted everything set up the way it should be.”
Mills can’t remember when he, Buck and Stipe began seriously talking about the end of the band. “But it was discussed on the 2008 tour,” he says, and during the sessions for Collapse Into Now. The group was coming to the end of its Warner Bros. deal and chose not to tour behind that record. There are “indications” on the album, Mills notes, citing Stipe‘s “lyrical content” in All the Best. “There are some straightforward see-you-laters on that one.
The exclusive interview appears in the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone, on newsstands Friday, and online at: www.rollingstone.com.