Michael Stipe has been working on his debut solo album for a while. In 2019, the former R.E.M. frontman said he had 18 songs ready to go, and he gave another update in 2023. Earlier this year, he went on Stephen Colbert's Late Show to debut a new song called "The Rest Of Ever" and talk about the long-awaited solo album. But now we're getting more information after he went on Monica Lewinsky's Reclaiming podcast and did an interview with the LA Times.
Stipe was interviewed for the LA Times alongside his producer Andrew Watt. Stipe said that, even though he told Colbert that the LP would be out by the end of the year, it's now slated for next spring. "The first song is coming out on New Year's Eve," he said. "Five seconds into the new year, there will be a new song with a video setting up the album. And the album will be released in May."
With Monica Lewinsky, Stipe played a snippet from one of the tracks on his phone. He also revealed that Peaches — who appeared on R.E.M.'s final studio album, 2011's Collapse Into Now — is a guest. "I have two parts written with her in mind. I need her voice and her energy on this record," he said. "Some of the songs are a bit disco, and she's really good at that. I'm not."
"I'm so immersed in what I'm doing that I really feel like I'm reclaiming my place in music through this record," he said. "The record will come out, people will either like it or they won't, and either way I'll be grateful and happy to have made it. Then I can make another one, and another one after that. I already have ideas about what I want to do next."
Watch the podcast episode below, and read the full LA Times interview here.