Photo: Getty Images North America
Before R.E.M. was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame Thursday (June 13), they sat down for their first joint interview in nearly 30 years for CBS Mornings. During that conversation, bassist Mike Mills declared jokingly that it would take a “comet” to get them back together. When asked why they were so adamant about not reuniting, guitarist Peter Buck bluntly replied, “It would never be as good.”
These comments made it all the more surprising when R.E.M.'s original members—Mills, Buck, singer Michael Stipe and drummer Bill Berry—performed an acoustic version of their hit "Losing My Religion" at the ceremony. Despite the band breaking up in 2011, this marked the first time all four original members performed together since their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2007. (Berry left the band in 1997 after suffering a brain aneurysm but played live with his former bandmates on several occasions during the years that followed.)
Jason Isbell inducted R.E.M. into the SHOF. “The songs they created served a real purpose for kids like me growing up in a small southern town," the singer-songwriter said in his speech. "Somebody out there reluctantly clawing their way into the mainstream who was just as strange and out of place and time as I was.” Isbell also covered the band's classic single “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”
Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, producer Timbaland and songwriters Hillary Lindsey and Dean Pitchford were also inducted into the SHOF 2024 class.
Watch R.E.M.'s surprise reunion performance below.