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 THE OPTIMIST
Michael Stipe Wants You To Know That, Yes, He’s Queer—And He Hopes That He Won’t Have To Be Talking Politics Again For A Loooong Time
INSTINCT: Hi, Michael. I know you’re on your way to Philly for the first night
of the Vote For Change tour. So, how familiar are you with Instinct?
MICHAEL STIPE: It’s an awesome magazine.
Thanks! When was the last time you did an interview with the gay press? The
day before yesterday I did something for a publication in Germany.
Weren’t you also on the cover of Butt recently? Excuse me?
Butt magazine. You were on the cover in a bathrobe pissing into a toilet.[Laughs]
Yes! That was actually one of the better interviews that I’ve done just because I love
that magazine so much. It’s the funniest periodical out there. Wolfgang [Tillmans,
who did the Butt interview and photos] is a great friend and he was really prodding
and pushing me in the interview. We had a great time together.
Now I’m wishing I was more friendly with you, because I love to ask and be
asked really prodding questions. You could probably try, but I’ll most likely
just push you away. [Laughs] The other awesome aspect of the Butt interview,
and you can go on their Web site and read it if you want to, at the outset of the
interview, I was in London and I didn’t have very much time and I was looking
for my favorite underwear…
I did read the Butt interview. It’s Hanro, right? Yeah, Hanro. It’s a type of
boxer that Hanro makes…
I guess that answers the lame “boxers or briefs” question. [Laughs] I really love
them but I can never fi nd them in my size. Finally, I’m in London and I have an
hour and a half, so I send my assistant off [to get me some]. Wolfgang wrote it into
the interview. A month later I get a letter and a box of underwear from Hanro with
a note saying, “We’re so happy that you like our product.” [Laughs] It was awesome
to get my favorite underwear sent to me in a box from Belgium or wherever.
But you haven’t done any American gay press in a while. Well, they’re not very
interested or they’re not very interesting. That’s pretty much how it turns out. [Laughs]
Which is why you and I are on the line together. I think Instinct is great, but the rest
of the stuff [I like] is not from here. Axm out of the U.K., I believe. Butt magazine, of
course. There’s not very much out there worth picking up every month.
I’m one to let albums speak for themselves, and I’m sure you’ve been talking
about the new one [Around The Sun] to other people ad nauseam… No, actually
I’ve been talking about politics ad nauseam. That’s all anyone wants to talk about.
We’ve been in Europe for a month, and all anybody wanted to talk about was the Vote For Change tour that we’re doing and what the
fuck is going on in the U.S. People [in Europe] seem
to have a much clearer idea of what’s happening.
Do you ever get tired of talking about politics?
Yeessss.
When Automatic came out, what, like 12 years ago
now, you mentioned that you didn’t really want
to write any more political songs. And you didn’t
for a while…until the war started, and there are
a few on the new record. I’m forever an optimist.
I guess at the time I thought the world was fi nally
going to see things the way I see them. That we’re
all going to come together and have free trade and
a clean environment and tremendous leaders who
understand the directions we need to head in. But
it didn’t turn out that way, did it? [Laughs] But I
remain an optimist.
So, you being part of the Vote For Change tour,
that was a no-brainer? We actually created it, along
with Bruce Spingsteen and The Dixie Chicks, the
Dave Matthews Band and Pearl Jam. We found out
through our managers coming together in New York
that each band had intentions of doing something
toward the election, but none of them was very
well organized outside of their home states. So the
managers came together and thought, Why not focus
on the parts of the country that are most important in
determining the election?
Ah, the “swing states.” None of us knew six or eight
months ago, when we started talking about this, that
it was going to consume every…waking…hour of
our lives up until this Friday night.
Well, it’s quite a collection of musical giants, to say
the least. Yeah, we’re rehearsing tomorrow night with
Springsteen, which for me is a great thrill. He’s been
a hero of mine since I was a teenager. And of course
I’ve had the opportunity to meet him, but I’ve never
been on stage with him…with a live mic. [Chuckles]
Even Stipe has surreal experiences? Yeah, well,
it’s not new to me. I’ve had a pretty extraordinary
life in my short 44 years, but this will be a
watershed [moment].
A lot of bands have cited R.E.M. as infl uential.
Just this past May I was at Coachella, and Thom
Yorke [of Radiohead] said on stage that you guys
and the Pixies were his big inspirations. But who
are the bands that are infl uencing you these
days? Please don’t say Hoobastank. [Laughs] It’s
a lot of people I consider my contemporaries,. The
people I go to, I go to them twofold. I go to them
for the music, and I go to them as a performer
and songwriter. These are people who, for me,
when they release something, however successful,
however experimental, however much they’re
challenging or pushing their own boundaries,
when they release something, for me they raise the
bar. So, it’s a short list: Radiohead, U2, Grant-Lee
Phillips, PJ Harvey, Björk, Patti Smith.
Not a bad list at all. Björk’s new album is really
amazing, definitely one of my favorite of the year.
Speaking of boxers, I don’t wear Hanro, but I
interviewed her in my boxers—they were Calvin
Klein. Yeah, you were talking to her about if she
recognized that she had a strong gay fan base,
right? Yeah, that was a good interview. Are you in
your boxers now?
Yeah, at Instinct all we do is wear our underwear and
nothing else around the office. That’s so awesome.
Tomorrow’s Jockstrap Day, so if you tell me some
of your secrets, I’ll send you some pictures. [Laughs
heartily] Casual Thursday?
Friday’s actually the casual day. You can come
naked, if you want. Yeah, and I have pole dancers in
my office who descend from the ceiling when I get
bored. [Laughs] Is there Toga Monday?
No, we wear suits on Mondays, but undress as the
day goes on. I always end up just wearing the tie by
the end of the day. That’s great. I hope it’s a thin one.
Naturally. This past year, you were also involved
with the awesome film Saved! What was the extent
of your involvement with it? It’s about to be released
in Europe, which is exciting. I think the European
audiences are going to love it. My producing partner,
Sandy Stern, and I found the project three and a half
years ago. He had produced Pump Up The Volume,
so he had experience with the high-school comingof-
age fi lm, but I had never made a movie like that
and really wanted to. The raw script we saw offered a
different take on the high school drama. We worked
really closely with the director, Brian [Dannelly], and
Mike Urban, his cowriter. Prior to taking that project
on, Sandy and I swore, after working on [Being]
John Malkovich, we would never again work with a
fi rst-time director, which Brian was. And now he’s
the toast of Hollywood, which is great for him. But
his vision for this fi lm and his comic sensibility were
so right-on that we decided to take it on. We got it
made with every person we wanted to be in the cast,
with the exception of one. And that one person was
replaced by someone who showed herself to be a
really talented actor: Mandy Moore. I mean, Hilary
Faye is amazing. [Laughs]
Sandy mentioned at Outfest this past year that,
when you and he started Single Cell Pictures, you
said that you didn’t want to make any movies
about rock or music, and then your first film ended
up being Velvet Goldmine. Well, when someone like
Todd Haynes calls you up and says, “I have a project
I’m really interested in, can we talk about it?” you
don’t say “no.” [Laughs]
Quite a few of the films you’ve produced have
had queer storylines or subplots. Is it a conscious
decision to go after these projects? Um, I wouldn’t
say it’s conscious, but that might be the stuff that
other people in Hollywood might ignore. Up until
a few years ago, nobody was really interested in any
type of gay-themed fi lm, and that has changed
dramatically in the last few years. The stuff that is
controversial or that doesn’t fi t into Hollywood’s
marketable vision, knowing the whole way that the
pink dollar would be behind us and that we would
just be pushing the boundaries of Hollywood out a
little bit with each project.
Do you get very involved with these film projects, or
do you just get them the money and let them loose?
No, I’m very involved with them. With my day job,
though, I’m traveling constantly, so most of the work
I do is by telephone. But I like being involved.
What would you consider your biggest
accomplishments in 2004? [Pauses] I put a
Christian Dior tuxedo jacket on top of a pair of
Carhartts that had holes all through them and wore
it to a public event and got away with it. [Laughs] In
fact, I made the fashion pages in London.
[Laughs] Back in 2001, when the last record came
out, you said in Time that you were a “queer artist.”
What does that mean to you? What happened
is, Time set up this whole thing in the U.K. press
where, as one writer put it, I’ve been pulled out of
the closet by the U.K. press more times than Frank
Sinatra had to sing “My Way.” Which is basically,
when they have a slow week and some celebrity
doesn’t fall on her face, they yank me out of the
closet again. I’ve been talking really publicly about
my sexuality since 1994. Not to get into the whole
Foucault academic argument, but queer is a much
broader outlook. It’s inclusive and not exclusive.
I have friends who absolutely identify as gay or
lesbian, 100 percent, that’s that. I have friends who
identify as straight, 100 percent, that’s that. And
that’s great. But I think and I believe there is a
whole gradation between those two identifi cations.
So this was the thing that was misquoted in Time
magazine: I made a comment that I was made to
feel cowardly for not speaking openly about my
sexuality, and what went missing in the editing of
that piece is that I said that in the early ’90s that I
was meant to feel cowardly. The way it was written
is that, three years ago I felt as if I had to speak out
about it. Obviously I have a chip on my shoulder
about this. [Laughs] I’ve always been out to my
family and my band and my friends and my lovers,
but in the early ’90s I was really pressured by the
gay press to say something, and to say something
publicly. This is just stupid, I thought, so I’m going
to say something, but the gay press isn’t going to like
what I have to say, because I don’t identify as gay. I’ve
had fantastic sex with men since I was a teenager.
I’ve also had fantastic sex with women, but they
don’t want to hear that second part, and they’re
going to call me on it. And, really, what I had to say
was not that original or that different, but it’s just
that people who have had to sacrifi ce a great deal
to identify themselves as gay don’t want to hear that
there is an in-between.
Well put. I know you have to head off, but thanks
again, Michael. You’re doing an awesome job and
good luck with your upcoming tours and album.
Thank you, Parker. I’m really honored that I’m one
of the men of the year at Instinct. —PARKER RAY
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