Biography: Michael Stipe (1960- )
John Michael Stipe was born January 4, 1960 in
Decatur, Ga. As his father was in the U.S. Air Force, the Stipe
family moved frequently during his youth. making leaps between
Georgia, Texas, Germany and Illinois. In the early 70s The Stipe's
settled for a time in Collinsville, Ill. a small town outside East
St. Louis.
Stipe has said his earliest exposure to music
came from his parents' music collection and therefore claims to
have had very little exposure to seminal music greats like the The
Beach Boys, The Beatles and Bob Dylan. It was to be the new wave
sounds of the mid 70s that would have greatest impact on Stipe. He
was excited by the bands he read about in magazines such as
Blondie, Television and Talking Heads. He would also take an
interest in London's punk movement. But none would inspire him as
much as Patti Smith whose Horses album, he would later say,
somewhat changed his life at age 15, inspiring him to explore
music more fully.
While still in high school Stipe was part of a
punk band called Bad Habits which played a few gigs in nearby St.
Louis but did little else. His time with the band was short lived.
In 1978, Stipe graduated from high school and his
family moved back to Georgia. He stayed behind in the St. Louis
for a short time until he could not support himself and joined his
family in the small town of Watkinsville, outside of Athens. In
1979 he enrolled in the University of Georgia where he majored in
Art/Drawing and Painting and was able to take classes in
photography. While a student at UGA, visits to Wuxtry, a local
record store, led to a rapport with a clerk named Peter Buck. The
two became friends, but their meeting did not immediately lead to
the formation of R.E.M. First, Stipe would join a Top 40 cover
band called Gangster. Unsatisfied by that experience, he soon
quit.
Stipe, Buck and a friend, Kathleen O'Brien, took
up residence inside an old, abandoned, deconsecrated church where
Buck's boss had once lived. Stipe and Buck began writing music
together and put feelers out for other musicians to join them.
O'Brien introduced them to Bill Berry who, upon learning they
needed a bass player, introduced them to Mike Mills. Their first
show as a band would be at a birthday party for O'Brien.
Since the1980 release of the EP Chronic Town
R.E.M. has released 11 albums, and garnered critical and
commercial popularity. Considered by most rock critics to be
one of the greatest, most influential bands of all time, the band
is still considered to have uncommon integrity despite winning
multiple Grammy Awards, selling millions of albums and possessing
one of the most lucrative recording contracts in music history.
Stipe's interests go beyond music. His public
political interests peaked in the early 90s when he was well known
for vocalizing his opinions on environmental conservation and
other progressive issues. In the latter part of the decade (and
today), Stipe concentrated more on his interests in photography in
film. Stipe co-founded the New York-based C-Hundred Film in 1987
with Jim McKay and the Los Angeles-based Single Cell Pictures in
1995 with Sandy Stern. Stipe heads the production company Self
Timer, parent company to Single Cell and C-Hundred, which signed a
three-year-first-look deal with United Artists Films in 2000.
Stipe has appeared as an actor in such films as
Athens, Ga.: Inside/Out, Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day and
Anthem and on television in shows including The Adventures of Pete
and Pete. He served as executive producer for the film Velvet
Goldmine and has acted as producer on the films Being John
Malkovich, American Movie and Spring Forward. He also has a book a
photographs, Two Times Intro: On the Road With Patti Smith.
In the early 90s, Stipe, after long refusing to
do so and after rumors swirled that he had contracted AIDS, began
discussing his sexuality. Stipe, and bandmates, said he didn't
respond to the AIDS rumors because he did not want to come off as
defensive or reactionary. He said he had been reluctant to talk
about his sexuality because he felt it was personal. Stipe did
reveal that he does not identify as straight, gay or bisexual,
that his sexuality is very fluid and that he desires and has
relationships with both men and women.
R.E.M.'s discography includes Murmur, Life's
Rich Pageant, Green, Out of Time, Automatic
for the People, Up and Man on the Moon among
others. Stipe has two sisters, Lynda and Cindy. He
resides, primarily, in Athens,Ga.
R.E.M.
: Talk About the Passion : An Oral History (Updated Edition) 
The
Haiku Year 
