Luke Jenner recently sat down with NME, recalling how he partied with B-52’s Fred Schneider in Georgia and why a grumpy Michael Stipe refused to meet him at the same party.
Jenner discussed how Schneider enjoyed his works with the Rapture and gave him a friendly call occasionally. So, when the frontman was in Fred’s hometown for a show, the B-52 singer decided to take Jenner to a local club and party all night.
And it sure was fun, dancing along with Schneider and meeting new people… until another rocker arrived at the club. The honorary, as you might guess, was Michael Stipe, and he wasn’t as friendly as the B-52 rocker. So, when Jenner and Fred made their way to the R.E.M. frontman to chat, Stipe simply refused.
Luke recalled how the singer stated he didn’t want to meet some random guy, which surely hurt the Rapture frontman’s feelings. The vocalist then discussed how the R.E.M. icon and Patti Smith, a significant influence on Jenner, were in the same rock fraternity regarding songwriting.
The Rapture frontman recalled how Stipe dismissed him:
“Afterwards, Michael Stipe arrived, and Fred introduced me, and Michael was not having it. He said, ‘I don’t care who this fucking dude is! I have no interest in meeting him at all.’
But Michael fits into the same poetic rock fraternity as Patti Smith. He grew up reading about her, and we all fit into this history. For me, the culmination of my dreams was I moved to New York because I read [oral history of punk] ‘Please Kill Me,’ and now other artists moved there because they read ‘Meet Me In The Bathroom.’”
So, Jenner wasn’t in any luck when it came to meeting with Stipe and having a proper chat. We might only guess that the R.E.M. icon was probably having an off day and didn’t want to meet anyone new. Still, if you happen to bump into Michael at a party, let us advise you to take things a bit slow and approach him only after ensuring he’s in the right mood.
