R.E.M.’s Bill Berry Back Working With The Bad Ends

Former R.E.M. drummer and cofounder Bill Berry has come out of retirement to join The Band Ends.

Berry left R.E.M. in 1997 for health reasons. In 1995 he collapsed on stage and was found to have a brain aneurysm. Berry retired from the music business and for the past two decades has been a farmer in Georgia.

Bill’s music presence has been minimal. His last album with R.E.M. was ‘New Adventures In Hi-Fi’ in 1996. R.E.M. released five more albums without Bill, with their final album ‘Collapse In Now’ released in 2011.

The Bad Ends will release the album ‘The Power and the Glory’ in January. The video for the first single ‘All Your Friends Are Dying’ features a cameo from another R.E.M. member Mike Mills.

The song pays tribute to Big Star with the lyrics “And as the sun went down the lights began to glow And Jody came up to sing my favorite song and so” and “And before Big Star came on The Glands opened up the show And Frank played his SG again And it really gave me a thrill”.

The Bad Ends will play their first ever gig on 27 November in Athens, Georgia.

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