R.E.M. 2003-11-14 - 'The Frank Skinner Show', ITV, UK (Frank Skinner interviews Michael Stipe)

I'll tell you what, I wouldn't mind being the lead singer of a band that sold 50 million albums, REM ladies and gentlemen, Michael Stipe, that was beautiful. Thanks now, before we continue, they have a new album available, it's the best. from REM that's there, and it's when you listen to this album that you think: did they really make so many brilliant songs? Do you feel when you listen to it? You hear it? I haven't heard it well, no, I hear it. Obviously the hardest part of doing that wasn't choosing the songs, but figuring out how to sequence them because chronologically it didn't make sense, so we tried to sequence them like it was a live set and I think I think. it worked yeah that was the last time i heard it yeah you know what's good trust me thanks now this is this project part of the

michael

stipe

myth do you collect airline tickets?

Yes, I do it well. I started in 1994 and it just seemed to me. For me, this is what it is, you know the ticket you get and you have to

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it to the stewardess when you get on, it's a memory of a place that doesn't exist, it's just a memory of a space of time. because when you travel you're not anywhere, you're just going from place to place and particularly on planes, you can't say I'm in Iowa or I'm in Sheffield or I'm passing through Bristol, you're just flying through space and then you end up somewhere , so I like the idea of ​​something that represents a place that doesn't exist, so I have my whole plane. tickets and I stick them on a piece of cardboard and my mouth is very dry because I'm a little nervous hey, you're among friends, Michael, am I talking too fast because that happens?

That's fine thanks. um I think it's going great so okay thanks for Emily how many of these? Boarding pass, this is what you need to collect. I think so, boarding pass, yes. How many would you say are here? Hundreds, probably 500 sixes, are you playing along? Yes, for my work. Yes, browse and check your boarding passes. Did you know? I learned something because I put one of them on the wall in my apartment and it doesn't get direct sun, but the ink they use is starting. for them to fade, so I have to find a way if I want to, if I want to keep them until the end of my life, I have to find a way to make them not fade or appreciate that they fade and just allow those natural UV rays to be part of what is I guess they're not designed for display, now you were.

I think it's the highest award for anyone who was on The Simpsons, yeah, which is cool. We had a guest last week. I was on the Simpsons. I'm always very impressed by who wasn't nice, it was Homer Simpson. I should have seen it coming, so this is Michael and the rest of the gang on The Simpsons, you lied to us. Michael no, that's not REM. right, let's recycle those bits and get out of here, they have very good writers, yes, but it's great because I think sometimes people say, see you later, he's a pretty serious guy.

Now I'm relaxed so I can talk. Oh, let's go where we can talk. anything for a minute, but it's good, I think that

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ed that you can, as we would say, take the piss, yeah, I think that's important, well the reason I sound very sincere because I have to think a lot to say it and articulate it. my thoughts because I'm not well educated and I have a complex about us so I think very very hard and then you write fabulous lyrics and I don't like my teeth. Sorry, I tried. Don't smile, I mean, I know, Charlie, you should mention your teeth because you probably had an influence on all kinds of people, but you had a pretty big influence on me, why?

Because a friend of mine had dinner with you about five years ago. ago and he told me and he said, you know, at the end of the dinner, Michael Stipe took a knife and said, well, I checked it and I do that everything we do and it's a worry tactic, it's a reflective surface, you know, in a place where you really need one exactly they should have small tooth mirrors in restaurants restaurants would be an anecdote light so when you start an anecdote you turn on a light so the waiter doesn't come out in the mirror when the laughter comes you turn off the light wait a minute, but this is, I think it's a great idea, the best thing is when people say, hey, what are you doing, I'm like, oh, this is something Michael Stipe does, I know, I got it from not continuing, Audrey Hepburn used to check her teeth. with her knife and you had dinner with Audrey no no I never met the woman I would have loved but I didn't meet her she was she was talented but it goes like a fabulous chain across the Atlantic and now people watching this, you'll think it's a brilliant start reviewing my brother's knife, I brought a knife because it's hard to explain without the accessory, yeah, I brush my teeth before I cum, that's cool now, but if you're a bit self-conscious Slavin , feel free, it's okay.

There aren't many guests I would give the knife to as a compliment. Do you still have a circus dog? Yes. I was very impressed when I read that she. I caught her once and I walked into the kitchen and the lights were off and it was night. and she needed some water or something and I walked into the kitchen and surprised her and she just I don't know how to describe this without showing it, but it was a little bit stung, right? She looks like the RCA Victor dog, you know? her teacher's voice Oh Nate Pann yes, half black and half white and she is about to sit at the table, she is about yes, tall and weighs 14 pounds and her name is helix and I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water and she took me.

I looked at her, this is my counter, but it's about, yes, she talks about it being a counter, so in English she's a dog, so she has four legs, but she was gone, she was gone like this and she was gone and she turned to go under the counter to get a piece of bread and I saw the whole thing and I thought and then she saw me bagel in the air it was like The Matrix orange yeah, that's one thing I tell you, I like to think I don't. they made. I said no, how many people are here.

Raise your hands, come on guys, it's not a kid, so did you enjoy it? Raise your hand, yes. Wow, I know, but look at that face. I mean, she means it. She looks American to me. Where are you from Connecticut? I have a website for those who enjoy little. I just there's one call, the reason I thought this would come out of my dog's dust is because he had another dog and he was a hunting dog and I put up a 4 foot fence guys. I didn't know how much food or was it about no, I'm five nine so it's okay, maybe it's here, but he was a big dog and he had jumped up to catch a squirrel or something and I didn't know and he had impaled himself on itself. on the fence and then I came home from work or wherever and Oslo wherever and you had him directing it and and and and I thought oh, it's wet and warm and on his chest and and actually there was a huge, it was like doubting Thomas, there was a big hole in her chest so I had to call my vet around midnight and she didn't know it at the time but well she had done it anyway, she had been drinking but needed help holding it up. well while she sewed his chest back anam and I fainted hoping I was holding it and on the table I was about I'm obsessed with height, that's what I felt something cold on my chin and I'm holding it on the table and It was the table.

My feet had gotten like that and I slid all the way down until my chin was resting on the table watching her drunkenly sew the chest closed and she and Anna said, I think you should sit down. and I fell back into a chair and did like this and then I woke up and I saw my hand on the floor and I had this whole vision of this beautiful place and I was covered in sweat and I said: I'm going to go get some fresh air, my friend April was waiting for me and we went out and there was a beautiful moon and I'm the vet and I had a gravel parking lot and my friend was holding me and we walked about five steps out the door and I said, I'm going to pass out and I passed out in the gravel. and I landed on my face, which was fine, I mean, it was fine, but she flipped me over because it was really dramatic and I woke up and I was in this beautiful sweat and what happens.

It's, I think your brain is just like every synapse in your brain is completely realigned and it's like the hard drive has been emptied and that's what happens when you think and it's like that for me because I think too much and I and I can't always. connecting thoughts and that makes for great lyric writing, but it's not always easy to have dinner with me, but for me to have something in my life that empties everything like that is a great thing, you know well, come on, um, come on. nearby, take another look at one of their greatest hits and this is Orange Crush.

Oh, and it seems like you came up with a method here that if you find it difficult to lip sync, this is a great way around it, you know. It was that, I mean, every bad haircut from the 1980s rolled into one and I apologize for it and I think I'm looking, I'm just looking and I'm thinking, okay, reactionary American pop singer, I'm looking at everyone else . things like okay, I'll also take off my shirt and unbutton my jacket and I think I had unbuckled my belt, which always makes people very tense, yeah, we want to go to this show in Florida in front of all these frat boys and I just didn't like it at all, but they paid us for it and we needed the money at the time, this is 1981 and I used to wear long pants and a pair of shorts on top, but I would keep the zipper down because that made people will get very angry.

I can't, I don't know why I even said that. No one ever fainted. How is your penis? Well, Michael, I think REM is Greatest Hits is a truly wonderful album with a lot of brilliant music and In fact, you should be very proud of it, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Stipe.