“We’re Happy For Bill” Say R.E.M.
Michael Stipe and Mike Mills say they’re pleased that former drummer Bill Berry turned to farming at the height of their fame.
In the fourth part of our exclusive documentary, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe have told Xfm that they’re happy for former drummer and founder member Bill Berry. Berry, who developed an aneurysm on the band’s Monster tour in 1995, quit the band following the band’s next album, ‘New Adventures In Hi Fi’ in 1996.
“The fact that Bill Berry had an aneurysm and survived intact is pretty amazing”, said Michael Stipe. “That doesn’t happen a lot of the time. The fact he made a life decision to leave the band and become a farmer - I’m actually really happy for him”.
Berry quitting the band came at the height of R.E.M.’s fame. They’d just re-signed to Warners for an astronomical sum and had released two of the decade’s biggest albums in ‘Out Of Time’ and ‘Automatic For The People’
“By the time ‘Losing My Religion’ became a song of the summer, we had our heads pretty screwed on”, said Stipe. “We had a good idea about what it took to survive in the music industry and what it took to be a band that was uncompromising about the way we presented ourselves and recorded”.
Mike Mills added:
“I think it’s better for your mental health if your growth is gradual. To have your first or second album have a monster hit is very difficult to deal with and a lot of people don’t deal with it very well”.
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