Watch Michael Stipe Sing R.E.M.’s “Wendell Gee” For The First Time In 39 Years

Former R.E.M. leader Michael Stipe has been famously reticent to return to the limelight on any kind of consistent basis, but he’s going all out for the Kamala Harris presidential campaign. Last week, Stipe and Jason Isbell played a Harris/Walz campaign concert in Pittsburgh, and they teamed up on “Driver 8,” an R.E.M. classic that Stipe hadn’t performed since 2008. On Thursday, Stipe played another campaign event — this one in R.E.M.’s old Athens, Georgia stomping grounds — and he sang an R.E.M. song that he hadn’t performed in much, much longer.

Michael Stipe still reportedly lives part-time in Athens, but he almost never plays there. So yesterday’s campaign event, alongside Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, was a rare thing. Stipe performed a four-song set, and he was reportedly backed up by Now It’s Overhead’s Andy LeMaster and Mercyland’s David Barbe. He sang “Driver 8” again, and he also did his solo song “Your Capricious Soul,” his Big Red Machine collab “No Time For Love Like Now,” and an R.E.M. oldie that he hasn’t performed in decades.

R.E.M. included their song “Wendell Gee” on their 1985 album Fables Of The Reconstruction. They did that song live a handful of times back in the day, but they never performed it after 1985. When he sang it at the campaign event, he seemed like he was lost in it. Watch it below.

From yesterday’s Rally for Harris-Walz campaign event in Athens with Douglas Emhoff where Michael Stipe & band, the 7 Million Hundred Campfire Guitars, performed “Wendell Gee,” “Your Capricious Soul,” “No Time For Love Like Now,” and “Driver 8.”

Photos by Wingate Downs pic.twitter.com/1adh4Hvbgn

— R.E.M. HQ (@remhq) October 11, 2024