Mike Mills
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- This article is about Mike Mills, the R.E.M. bassist. For the director/graphic designer, see Mike Mills (director).
Though known primarily as a bassist and piano player, his musical repertoire includes many other keyboard, string, wind and percussion instruments.
He is responsible for the songwriting behind some of R.E.M.'s most respected songs, including "Find the River", "At My Most Beautiful", "Why Not Smile", "Let Me In", "Wendell Gee", "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville", "Beat a Drum", "Be Mine", "New Test Leper" and "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?". In addition to providing backing melodies, he has also sung lead vocals on "Texarkana", "Near Wild Heaven", "Superman" and "Love Is All Around" (a Troggs cover).
Mills is also known for his collection of Nudie suits that he often wears on stage.
Recent album Around the Sun was received with huge media criticism. Mike Mills' influence was arguably greater on that album than ever before, with his piano lines and keyboards coming to the fore far more than the guitar playing of Peter Buck. His background vocals have become increasingly mixed into the background, and this has been the case since 2003's "Animal". Some would suggest that Buck's songwriting may be somewhat diluted in R.E.M., and that he focuses greatly on various side projects, leaving Mills to write more than ever.
Trivia
- Mills was arrested for indecent exposure in Athens in the early 1980s, known in R.E.M. lore as "the watertower incident".
- On June 30, 1999, at the Wuhlheide in Berlin, Germany, Cerys Matthews from support band Catatonia, rushed onstage and kissed Mills full on the lips, leaving the bassist "rather shocked". Matthews later apologized to him and the band, citing several bottles of wine as the reason for her actions.
- Mills' father, Frank, died on September 25, 2001. A singer whose appearances included The Ed Sullivan Show, he had recently retired to Lake Oconee in Greene County, reported Online Athens at the time. In addition to singing, Mr. Mills had been a pilot for the U.S. Marine Corps. He was laid to rest four days later at the First Methodist Church of Greensboro, Georgia. Bill Berry was among the pallbearers.
- Mills has one son, Julian, who was born in 1989. He introduced him during a show at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, Colorado, in 1999.
- In April of 2006 Mills was placed at #7 in a list of "100 Unsexiest Men in the World" by the The Phoenix, a Boston area newspaper.
- Mills guest-starred alongside Michael Stipe and Peter Buck in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer the Moe."
- In February of 2005, Mills fell ill with an ear infection moments before beginning a concert in Sheffield, England. Noted as a mild-mannered individual, his doctor reportedly remarked to him, jokingly, during his stay at the hospital, "you call yourself a rock star? You've been here three nights and you haven't smashed your room up yet!"
| R.E.M. |
| Peter Buck - Mike Mills - Michael Stipe |
| Bill Berry |
| Other musicians: Nathan December - Buren Fowler - Peter Holsapple - Barrett Martin - Scott McCaughey - Bill Rieflin - Ken Stringfellow - Joey Waronker |
| Management and producers: Joe Boyd - Don Dixon - Bertis Downs, IV - Mitch Easter - Don Gehman - Jefferson Holt - Scott Litt - Pat McCarthy |
| Discography |
| Albums: Chronic Town (EP) - Murmur - Reckoning - Fables of the Reconstruction - Lifes Rich Pageant - Document - Green - Out of Time - Automatic for the People - Monster - New Adventures in Hi-Fi - Up - Reveal - Around the Sun |
| Compilations: Dead Letter Office - Eponymous - - The Best of R.E.M. - In the Attic - In Time |
| Soundtracks: ''Man on the Moon |
| Videos: Succumbs - Pop Screen - Tourfilm - This Film Is On - Parallel - Road Movie - Perfect Square - In View |
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