On June 13, 2024, the four original founding members of R.E.M. - vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry - performed together onstage for the first time since the mid '90s, playing Losing My Religion following their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at New York's Marriott Marquis Hotel last night. Last February, at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia, the four musicians shared a stage once again, performing Pretty Persuasion as special guests to actors and musicians Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy at their R.E.M. tribute show. But, Peter Buck insists in a new interview with MOJO, there will never be an official, full-scale R.E.M. reunion.
The band's last official performance was on November 18, 2008, when they closed out their Accelerate tour at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. But drummer Billy Berry hadn't performed with the band since the mid '90s, after he suffered a double brain aneurysm during a March 1995 gig in Lausanne, Switzerland.
