Michael Stipe appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Thursday night. During the six minute chat, Stipe discussed his "biblical" beard, the 25th anniversary of Out Of Time, and the electoral college. He also gave R.E.M. fans a scintilla of hope -- Colbert asked him if he ever feels like jumping onstage to perform, to which Stipe replied:
"I saw PJ Harvey...Radiohead...you see them up there, and it's like, wow, I kinda wanna jump up there again. But I had to step away from music for awhile."
Before Colbert could tease more out of Stipe's most intriguing revelation, the R.E.M. leader quickly moved along to mention he recently produced and co-wrote a new album for Fischerspooner which is due out next year. Stipe called the collaboration "a complete surprise...I didn't anticipate doing it, but they asked me to help them with a couple of songs and I wound up co-writing everything."
Watch the interview below along with video of Stipe, Colbert, and James Franco performing an updated-for-2016 version of "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)":
Published December 17th, 2016