Michael Stipe: ‘I Think I Will Sing Again’
It’s been a long time since fans have heard Michael Stipe sing. After R.E.M. split up in 2011 following the release of Collapse Into Now, Stipe has remained largely away from the microphone, only singing on a sea shanty with Courtney Love for Johnny Depp’s pirate-themed compilation and a surprise appearance alongside Coldplay’s Chris Martin at the 12-12-12 benefit concert in New York.
While fans questioned whether the singer was contemplating retirement, Stipe revealed to CBS This Morning: Saturday‘s Anthony Mason that we might be hearing his trademark voice again at some point.
“I think I’ll sing again. That’s maybe an exclusive? But I think I will sing again, yeah,” Stipe said. Mason then asks, “Soon?” “I love my voice and I think it’s still… I think it actually got better as I got older. Not soon,” Stipe says. “Maybe. I don’t know.” Stipe also admits, “I sing in the shower. And I’m not bad. You would be surprised at my play list.”
Stipe was on CBS This Morning: Saturday to discuss his legendary career, a journey that is chronicled in the new six-DVD box set REMTV. When Stipe does decide to sing again, however, it definitely won’t be with his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bandmates. After Mason asks whether an R.E.M. reunion is in the cards, Stipe says emphatically, “No. That will never happen… There’s no point.”
“I love those guys very much and I respect them hugely as musicians and as songwriters and everything, but I just don’t want to do that thing that people do,” Stipe says of other acts that have reunited. “I don’t want to do that. Full respect for those who do it. Total respect.” Stipe added that he also “despises nostalgia.”