XtineFiles

Since my last post (and with the help of Pop Muse and Alanis aka 'my aloe vera') I've purged the Punk and decided to return to a simpler time. Below is an excerpt of an interview I did several years ago.

Xtine: What’s the best part of being in REM?

Michael Stipe: The best award that I ever received, and it happens on a daily basis, is someone walks up to me on a sidewalk and says ‘this song meant this to me in this time of my life.’ That to me is an award so heavy that I cant carry it off the stage.

Xtine: What keeps the fans listening?

Stipe: I don’t know why people like us, but I know why I like us. I know the music that I try to make. It tries to jump over the bar of music that I find to be the most inspirational. That includes my top ten. Artists that I followed, Radiohead, U2, Patty Smith, PJ Harvey, Courtney Love, Bjork, those are the people that I watch and in my sweetly competitive way I want to do something just as good.


Xtine: So you have this band, you are this big rock star and

… (Interrupts)

Stipe: I'm a pop star. I've decided in 2003 that I am a pop star. The one time that I met and spoke with Andy Warhol he asked me what I did and I said ‘I'm a singer in a band.’ I was 26, I was terrified and scared, he was my hero. ‘I’m a singer in a band,’ I mumbled. And he said ‘Oh, you're a pop star.’ And I said ‘No, I’m a singer in a band.’ But I think Mr. Warhol was correct.

Yeah, I know is REM still relevant? They are to me.