Michael Stipe: The Interview interview

(Link via Perpetua)

courtesy of last.fm

Interview Magazine recently posted a pretty meaty article on REM's Michael Stipe. He candidly talks about his band, growing up in the early years of AIDS awareness, and even his bout with bulimia:

We had moved out of opening for the Gang of Four or The English Beat. At that point we were playing our own shows and people liked us, but I was unraveling on the inside. I was also vegetarian, trying to eat from fast-food restaurants without meat. I didn't know how to eat properly and I was starving. I was adrenalized to the eyeballs from performing. I was afraid that I was sick with AIDS. We were playing five shows a week. I even went through a period of abstinence where I didn't drink and stopped having sex. Which is crazy. Maybe I'm answering too many questions at once here, but this is where my mind was at the age of 25.

I hate throwing out platitudes,  but I think those few sentences speak volumes about the multi-faceted nature of eating disorders, their persistence in the music industry (that's compounded by road travel/bad food), and men's resistance to talking about what is thought of as a "woman's disease."