Tomorrow (June 13), R.E.M. will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) alongside Steely Dan, Timbaland, Hillary Lindsey and Dean Pitchford. To mark the occasion, they sat down with CBS Mornings anchor Anthony Mason for their first group interview in almost 30 years.
The conversation is set to air in full tomorrow, but the broadcaster has posted a preview clip on social media that sees all four members of R.E.M. — Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills — hanging out around a table, reminiscing about their incomparable careers in light of the induction, and even enjoying a little self-indulgence as a treat.
"We lived or died on the strength of our songs, so this is a huge honour," Buck said of the SHOF induction. Despite Mills's insistence that it's a bit too self-indulgent to take in R.E.M.'s body of work as a whole and that none of the band members are really like that, Stipe interjected, "Okay, I am!" prompting laughter from everyone.
The frontman continued, "And then I wind up on YouTube and I watch some live performance, and I'm like, 'Wow, I can't believe we did that. Like we did — we did things. And we did it really well, from time to time.'"
After breaking up in 2011, all four members of the band (although perhaps Stipe most notably) have happily pursued their own projects in the years since. Earlier this year, they reunited on stage in their hometown of Athens, GA, making an appearance to support Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy's R.E.M. covers set.
Watch the preview clip of the interview below.