Boat Of In the early 1980s, Stipe played in the group Boat Of with Tom Smith, who would later found the groups
Peach of Immortality and
To Live and Shave in L.A.. Carol Levy and Mike Green were also in the band.
R.E.M. in Athens, where Stipe met guitarist
Peter Buck. While studying art at the
University of Georgia in
Athens, Stipe frequented the
Wuxtry record shop, where he met store clerk
Peter Buck in 1980. "He was a striking-looking guy and he also bought weird records, which not everyone in the store did," Buck recalled. The two became friends; they eventually decided to form a band and started writing music together, although at the time Stipe was also in a local group named Gangster. Buck and Stipe were soon joined by
Bill Berry and
Mike Mills, and named themselves R.E.M., a name Stipe selected at random from a dictionary. Stipe was the youngest member of the band. All four members of R.E.M. dropped out of school in 1980 to focus on the new band. Stipe was the last to do so. The band issued its debut single, "
Radio Free Europe," on
Hib-Tone; it was a
college radio success. The band signed to
I.R.S. Records for the release of the
Chronic Town EP one year later. In 1983, R.E.M. released its debut album,
Murmur, which was acclaimed by critics. Stipe's vocals and lyrics received particular attention from listeners.
Murmur went on to win the
Rolling Stone Critics Poll Album of the Year over
Michael Jackson's
Thriller. Their second album,
Reckoning, followed in 1984. In 1985, R.E.M. traveled to England to record their third album,
Fables of the Reconstruction, a difficult process that brought the band to the verge of a break up. After the album was released, relationships in the band remained tense. Gaining weight and acting eccentrically (such as by shaving his hair into a monk's
tonsure), Stipe later identified himself as suffering from depression and exhaustion during this period, saying "I was well on my way to losing my mind." They toured in Canada and throughout Europe that year; Stipe had bleached his hair blond during this time. Bill Berry left R.E.M. in 1997, and the other members continued as a three-piece. R.E.M. disbanded amicably in 2011. Stipe confirmed in 2021 that they had no plans to reunite.
Projects In September 1983, a few months after the release of R.E.M.'s debut album, Stipe participated in a low-budget, forty-five-minute
Super-8 film called
Just Like a Movie, shot in Athens by
New York Rocker magazine photographer Laura Levine, who was a friend of the band. Those with acting roles in the film included Levine, Stipe, his sister Lynda,
Matthew Sweet (who formed a short-lived duo,
Community Trolls, with Michael Stipe), and R.E.M.'s Bill Berry. The film remains unreleased. In the period between 1990 and 1992, Stipe was involved with the band
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. He co-produced and featured on their two albums:
White Dirt (1990) and
8 Track Stomp (1991). Stipe was friends with
Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of
Nirvana, who died in 1994. R.E.M. recorded the song "Let Me In" from the 1994 album
Monster in tribute to Cobain. Stipe was chosen as the godfather of Cobain and
Courtney Love's daughter,
Frances Bean Cobain. In 2023, Stipe officiated Frances's wedding to
Riley Hawk. Stipe was once very close to fellow
alternative rock singer
Natalie Merchant and has recorded a few songs with her, including one titled "Photograph," which appeared on a pro-choice benefit album titled
Born to Choose, and they appeared live with
Peter Gabriel singing Gabriel's single "
Red Rain" at the 1996
VH1 Honors and a few other times. Stipe and
Tori Amos became friends in the mid-1990s and recorded a duet in 1994 called "It Might Hurt a Bit" for the
Don Juan DeMarco motion picture soundtrack. Both Stipe and Amos decided not to release it. In 1998, Stipe published a collection called
Two Times Intro: On the Road with Patti Smith. In 2006, Stipe released an EP that comprised six different cover versions of
Joseph Arthur's "
In The Sun" for the
Hurricane Katrina disaster relief fund. One version, recorded in a collaboration with
Coldplay's
Chris Martin, reached number one on the Canadian Singles Chart. Also in 2006, Stipe appeared on the song "Broken Promise" on the
Placebo release
Meds. Continuing his non-R.E.M. work in 2006, Stipe sang the song "L'Hôtel" on the tribute album to
Serge Gainsbourg titled
Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited and appeared on the song "Dancing on the Lip of a Volcano" on the
New York Dolls album
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. He recorded a song with
Miguel Bosé on the album
Papito, "Lo que ves es lo que hay." Stipe collaborated with
Lacoste in 2008 to release his own "holiday collector edition" brand of
polo shirt. The design depicts a concert audience from the view of the performer on stage. He appeared with
Chris Martin of
Coldplay live at
Madison Square Garden and online to perform "
Losing My Religion" in the
12-12-12 concert raising money for relief from
Hurricane Sandy. A new recording from Stipe and featuring
Courtney Love was revealed in 2013. The song, "Rio Grande," is taken from
Johnny Depp's pirate-themed album, ''
Son of Rogue's Gallery. Stipe also created the soundtrack for The Cold Lands'' (2013), a film by Stipe's friend director
Tom Gilroy. Stipe inducted the American grunge band
Nirvana into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10, 2014. He debuted his first solo composition at
Moogfest in 2017. In June 2017, it was revealed that Stipe had returned to recording, acting as producer and co-writer for
Fischerspooner's single "Have Fun Tonight", the lead single from their album
Sir. Stipe would go on to produce and co-write the entire
Sir album, released on February 16, 2018. Stipe released the solo song "Future, If Future" on March 24, 2018, followed by "Your Capricious Soul" on October 5, 2019. "Drive to the Ocean" was released for his 60th birthday on January 4, 2020. Photography has long been a passion for Stipe and he has been carrying a camera with him since his teenage years when he photographed shows featuring
Ramones,
The Runaways and
Queen. In 2018, Stipe released a book of his photography entitled
Volume 1, which featured 35 photographs of such celebrities as
River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain. In 2019, Stipe collaborated with
Aaron Dessner and
Justin Vernon's band
Big Red Machine on the single "No Time For Love Like Now." The song was finished and released in 2020 during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Stipe began recording his first solo album at
Electric Lady Studios in New York City in 2023, writing and producing "synth-infused, poppy" songs with longtime collaborator
Andy LeMaster. He performed "The Rest of Ever" on
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in April 2026 in promotion of his debut solo album.
Film and television work In early 1987, Stipe and Jim McKay co-founded C-00 Films, Stipe and his producing partner,
Sandy Stern, have served as executive producers on films including
Being John Malkovich,
Velvet Goldmine, and
Man on the Moon. He was also credited as a producer of the 2004 film
Saved! as well as serving as a co-producer on the 1999 documentary
American Movie, directed by
Chris Smith. Smith has mentioned how thanks to Stipe having a hand in producing the film, he was able to get additional funding to get film stock as he followed
Milwaukee filmmaker
Mark Borchardt, his family and friends, including
Mike Schank, while Borchardt completed his short film
Coven. In 1998, he worked on Single Cell Pictures, a film production company that released several arthouse/indie movies. Stipe has made a number of acting appearances on film and on television. He appeared in an episode of
The Adventures of Pete & Pete as an ice cream man named Captain Scrummy. Stipe has appeared as himself with R.E.M. on
Sesame Street, playing a reworked version of "
Shiny Happy People" titled "Furry Happy Monsters", and appeared in an episode of
The Simpsons titled "
Homer the Moe", in which R.E.M. was tricked into playing a show in
Homer Simpson's garage. He also appeared as a guest on the
Cartoon Network talk show spoof
Space Ghost Coast to Coast in the episode "Hungry". Stipe made several short appearances on
The Colbert Report. Stipe voiced Schnitzel the Reindeer in the 1999 movie
Olive, the Other Reindeer and appeared in the 1996 film
Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day.
Political activism to divest from
fossil fuels in 2017 In March 2006, Stipe, along with other musicians, held a protest concert against the Iraq War. In March 2018, Stipe joined the "
March for Our Lives" rallies to advocate
gun control after the
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. He also released a teaser of his new song in the rally. In a 2021 interview for
Jacobin, Stipe described himself as a
democratic socialist, and said that he was a member of the
Democratic Party so he could vote in Democratic primaries. He endorsed
Bernie Sanders'
2016 and
2020 presidential campaigns. In October 2023, Stipe signed an open letter of artists to President
Joe Biden urging a ceasefire in Gaza.
Philanthropy In August 2022, Stipe announced a contribution of his 2018 debut solo track, "Future, If Future" to be featured on a
bioplastic 12″ vinyl record to support
Brian Eno's Earthpercent. In February 2024, Stipe donated handwritten lyrics for the song "Nightswimming" to an auction benefitting
Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, in Gaza. In October 2025, Stipe donated signed handwritten lyrics for the song "At My Most Beautiful" for an auction benefit held by
Housing Works. ==Personal life==