Mike Mills (R.E.M.)

Mike Mills of R.E.M. and the Baseball Project and a new supergroup with Darius Rucker is here, and we’ve got questions: How did R.E.M. come to share all songwriting credits, and why did Mills initially object? What impact did the albums’ producers have? Given the bandmates’ senses of humor, why wouldn’t R.E.M. smile in photographs? Had R.E.M. decided to call it quits before it made Collapse into Now? What songs did Michael Stipe transform in surprising ways when he added lyrics and vocals? Did Stipe complete every song handed to him by Mills, Peter Buck and/or Bill Berry, and if not, would they consider going back to any of them? Have the Michael Shannon/Jason Narducy R.E.M.-celebrating live shows given Mills new perspective on any of those songs or made him want to play them again with his old bandmates? Why hasn’t Mills been driven to make a solo album? And what happened when Mills joined Bruce Springsteen on stage? (Photo by Cass Bird.)