It’s The End of the World As They Know It: R.E.M. Breaks Up After Three Decades

Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, and Peter Buck will not be making music together anymore. The legendary rock group, R.E.M., announced today that they were breaking up after thirty one years of making music.

R.E.M. wrote on its website:

“To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”

The group posting was followed by individual messages from the remaining band members. Michael Stipe, the band’s guitarist, said:

“We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it. I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way. We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”

Mike Mills, R.E.M.’s bassist, said that the decision to call it quits came while the band was compiling a greatest hits album. Mills, along with Stipe and Buck, began asking themselves, “What’s next?” Mills assures fans that there is no bad blood between bandmates, and that the decision to stop making music was mutual.

Mills said:

“There’s no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We’ve made this decision together, amicably and with each other’s best interests at heart. The time just feels right.”

Here’s the video for, “It’s the End of the World,” one of the bands most famous songs.

NPR reports that R.E.M. released it’s debut album, Murmur, in 1983. 30 years later they released their last album of original songs, Collapse Into Now. The group was formed in 1980 by Michael Stipe, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and drummer Bill Berry. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.