John Michael Stipe was born January 4, 1960 in Decatur, Ga. As his father was in the U.S. Air Force, the Stipe family moved frequently during his youth. making leaps between Georgia, Texas, Germany and Illinois. In the early 70s The Stipe's settled for a time in Collinsville, Ill. a small town outside East St. Louis. Stipe has said his earliest exposure to music came from his parents' music collection and therefore claims to have had very little exposure to seminal music greats like the The Beach Boys, The Beatles and Bob Dylan. It was to be the new wave sounds of the mid 70s that would have greatest impact on Stipe. He was excited by the bands he read about in magazines such as Blondie, Television and Talking Heads. He would also take an interest in London's punk movement. But none would inspire him as much as Patti Smith whose Horses album, he would later say, somewhat changed his life at age 15, inspiring him to explore music more fully. While still in high school Stipe was part of a punk band called Bad Habits which played a few gigs in nearby St. Louis but did little else. His time with the band was short lived. In 1978, Stipe graduated from high school and his family moved back to Georgia. He stayed behind in the St. Louis area for a short time until he could not support himself and joined his family in the small town of Watkinsville, outside of Athens. In 1979 he enrolled in the University of Georgia where he majored in Art/Drawing and Painting and was able to take classes in photography. While a student at UGA, visits to Wuxtry, a local record store, led to a rapport with a clerk named Peter Buck. The two became friends, but their meeting did not immediately lead to the formation of R.E.M. First, Stipe would join a Top 40 cover band called Gangster. Unsatisfied by that experience, he soon quit. Stipe, Buck and a friend, Kathleen O'Brien, took up residence inside an old, abandoned, deconsecrated church where Buck's boss had once lived. Stipe and Buck began writing music together and put feelers out for other musicians to join them. O'Brien introduced them to Bill Berry who, upon learning they needed a bass player, introduced them to Mike Mills. Their first show as a band would be on April 5, 1980, at a birthday party for O'Brien. Since the 1980 release of the EP Chronic Town R.E.M. has released 11 albums, and garnered critical and commercial popularity. Considered by most rock critics to be one of the greatest, most influential bands of all time, the band is still considered to have uncommon integrity despite winning multiple Grammy Awards, selling millions of albums and possessing one of the most lucrative recording contracts in music history. Stipe's interests go beyond music. His public political interests peaked in the early 90s when he was well known for vocalizing his opinions on environmental conservation and other progressive issues. In the latter part of the decade (and today), Stipe concentrated more on his interests in photography in film. Stipe co-founded the New York-based C-Hundred Film in 1987 with Jim McKay and the Los Angeles-based Single Cell Pictures in 1995 with Sandy Stern. Stipe heads the production company Self Timer, parent company to Single Cell and C-Hundred, which signed a three-year-first-look deal with United Artists Films in 2000. Stipe has appeared as an actor in such films as Athens, Ga.: Inside/Out, Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day and Anthem and on television in shows including The Adventures of Pete and Pete. He served as executive producer for the film Velvet Goldmine and has acted as producer on the films Being John Malkovich, American Movie and Spring Forward. He also has a book a photographs, Two Times Intro: On the Road With Patti Smith. In the early 90s, Stipe, after long refusing to do so and after rumors swirled that he had contracted AIDS, began discussing his sexuality. Stipe, and bandmates, said he didn't respond to the AIDS rumors because he did not want to come off as defensive or reactionary. He said he had been reluctant to talk about his sexuality because he felt it was personal. Stipe did reveal that he does not identify as straight, gay or bisexual, that his sexuality is very fluid and that he desires and has relationships with both men and women. R.E.M.'s discography includes Murmur, Life's Rich Pageant, Green, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Up and Man on the Moon among others. Stipe has two sisters, Lynda and Cindy. He resides, primarily, in Athens,Ga.

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