He explains to Salon why the band didn't do a farewell tour
(NEWSER) - REM’s break-up, announced in September , wasn’t a snap decision. The band had been talking about it during its 2008 tour, Michael Stipe tells Salon in a lengthy sit-down. “The decision came about quite organically, like most things in REM,” he says. By the end of that tour—which became their last—“we all kind of knew that these were most likely going to be our last shows. It was already, for us, bittersweet and weird and hard.” He says the thought of not performing live again is “actually painful to think about,” but the band didn’t want to leave things open-ended because the members needed “closure” in order to move forward with new projects. More»
