Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy surprised fans by bringing out R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe to perform ‘These Days’ and ‘The Great Beyond’. You can watch the moment below.
Shannon and Narducy are currently touring across the United States performing songs from R.E.M.’s ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ to mark the album’s 40th anniversary. The run follows earlier tours where they celebrated the 40 year milestone of ‘Fables Of The Reconstruction’, which they also took to the UK last summer. Before that, they performed songs from ‘Murmur’ during a 2024 tour.
During their concert at Brooklyn Steel in New York, Stipe stepped on stage with the band and performed two songs with them, ‘These Days’ and ‘The Great Beyond’.
This is not the first time Stipe has appeared as a guest during their tribute shows. Almost exactly one year earlier, he joined Shannon and Narducy at the same venue to perform ‘Pretty Persuasion’.
Check out their live collaboration below:
“It dumbfounds and delights me that we continue our crusade through this astounding catalog of music from one of Americaʼs most influential and unique bands,” Shannon said when the tour was first announced. “Now we find ourselves at a summit, Life’s Rich Pageant, and weʼre all pinching ourselves in disbelief to be so lucky. The most strange and beautiful adventure.”
In the past, all four members of R.E.M., Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills, reunited for a surprise appearance at the 40 Watt Club in their hometown of Athens, Georgia during Shannon and Narducy’s ‘Murmur’ tour. During that performance they also played ‘Pretty Persuasion’.
R.E.M. officially ended the band in 2011 after spending 31 years together. Bill Berry had previously left in 1997, after which Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills continued performing as a trio. Berry later rejoined the group for several special appearances during the 2000s, including a show at the Georgia Theatre in Athens in 2006.
During an interview with CBS last summer, the members of R.E.M. said they have no plans to reunite as a full time band, explaining that it would “never be as good” if they tried to bring the group back permanently.
