Peter Buck, London, May 31, 2019
Photo: Redferns, Lorne Thomson. All rights reserved.
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In an interview, guitarist Peter Buck spoke about his time with REM and why he wouldn’t be joining his former band, which broke up in 2011, these days.
Peter Buck on the end of REM: “I wouldn’t change it, but I wouldn’t go on like this again”
The 66-year-old talked about low points with his colleagues in the new issue of “Classic Rock”: “When the non-musical things became so intense, it took my joy a little. It’s just the aspects that wake you up and say, ‘Phew, I don’t want to be photographed today. And I don’t want to pretend to be an actor in a video I can’t act in.’”
Nevertheless, Buck also spoke of the beautiful experiences: “I loved performing in Glastonbury and selling a lot of records, but that was never the reason why I did it. And when we got to the point where we decided it was the end, it still felt like one big shared experience. I wouldn’t change it, but I wouldn’t do it again either.”
Buck emphasized that REM stopped at the right time in 2011, during a high. He explained: “The last two records were really strong. But I just felt that no matter how good our last work was, it wasn’t our time anymore. And that’s fair, and I understand that. And we were lucky. On the last tour we still played in front of a huge crowd of people. We were in South America, it was like the Beatles. Everyone was like, ‘Yeah, that’s a really good stopover.’ Drummer Bill Berry left in 1995.
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