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William "Bill" Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) was the drummer in alternative rock band R.E.M. for 17 years. He also was drummer for Hindu Love Gods, which featured his R.E.M. bandmates Mike Mills and Peter Buck and rocker Warren Zevon.
Berry was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Don and Anna - their fifth child. At three years old, Berry moved with his family to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, where they would remain for the next seven years. In 1968, they were on the move again, this time to Sandusky, Ohio, on the banks of Lake Erie.
R.E.M. career (1980-1997)
In 1972, the Berry family made their final move, to Macon, Georgia, literally just in time to start high school. It was there that he met bassist Mike Mills, and they played together in several different bands. Their first attempt at a career in music was short-lived. "I graduated high school in 1976 and put down my sticks and sold my drums," he explained . He and Mills decide to make money the way most other people do - by getting a day job. They rent an apartment on Arlington Street in Macon and Bill lands a job at the Paragon booking agency next door. "
Berry and Mills moved to Athens, Georgia in 1978, where they met Michael Stipe and Peter Buck. R.E.M. was formed in 1980 and by the early 1990s became one of the most acclaimed bands.
In 1995, Berry collapsed on stage while touring, due to a brain aneurysm. He left R.E.M. in October 1997, citing personal reasons. In 2000 he recorded for Tourette Syndrome Charity Album Welcome Companions.
Retirement (1997)
On October 30, 1997, three weeks after Berry had broken the news of his decision to retire to his closest friends, MTV were informed and duly dispatched a camera crew to R.E.M. HQ, where all four members of the band gathered for their last television interview as a quartet. Berry and Stipe sat on chairs in front of Buck and Mills, who perched on the edge of a desk.
“I didn’t wake up one day and decide, ‘I just can’t stand these guys anymore’ or anything,” explained Berry. “I feel like I’m ready for a life change. I’m still young enough that I can do something else. I’ve been pounding the tubs since I was nine years old... I’m ready to do something else. I’m at a point in my life where some of my priorities have shifted. I loved my seventeen years with R.E.M., but I’m ready to reflect, assess, and move on to a different phase of my life. The four of us will continue our close friendship, and I look forward to hearing their future efforts as the world’s biggest R.E.M. fan.”
When asked how he felt when the news was delivered, Mills revealed, “I was extremely hurt and angry and upset and disappointed. But, as sad as this is, the fact that Bill is still around to be my friend puts everything into perspective. I look forward to playing golf with Bill, and music with Michael and Peter.”
“We are very unsettled by this,” admitted Stipe. “It’s the biggest change we’ve ever had. It’s is the most direct blow that we have had. It’s the end of an era for us as Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe, and that’s sad. But I’m happy for Bill; it’s what he really wants and I think it’s a courageous decision. For me, Mike, and Peter, as R.E.M... are we still R.E.M.? I guess a three-legged dog is still a dog. It just has to learn to run differently.”
“After talking to Bill several times over the last few weeks, it became apparent to Mike, Michael and myself that he was sincere in his desire for personal change,” continued Buck. “Although it saddens us that Bill wants to move on, we all support his decision. He is treating these changes as positive, and so should we.”
Each of the quartet bore the signs of emotion, and it was left for the dishevelled-looking Berry to further explain his decision. “It first impacted me when we started work on the record in Hawaii earlier this year. I didn’t feel like I was all there, I felt like I was on another page or something. I found myself wandering out to the beach and looking at the waves and stuff while the other guys were inside working away. I put some things on tape, but my heart wasn’t in it. I just didn’t have the same drive to go in and work like I used to. It’s hard to describe, but I realized that there was something just very wrong. I wasn’t enthused about it. I thought maybe this was a phase, maybe I don’t want to bring this up right now, but months later I felt the same way. I still do to this moment.”
To conclude the interview, Berry thanked the loyal R.E.M. followers for allowing him to enjoy the best years of his life. “Thanks for giving me the greatest job a guy could ever have. I really mean that. It’s been a lot of fun right up until right now, and I’m sorry.”
Berry and the rest of the band took part in an online chat via MSN Chat the following day.
Acquiescing to Berry's wishes, and relieving him from the guilt of triggering a breakup, R.E.M. announced that it would continue as a three-piece, though, with his departure, the band would be losing more than just their drummer. Berry regularly contributed elements such as guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards, and piano on studio tracks, occasional bass and regular backing vocals in live performance, and made notable songwriting contributions (including "Perfect Circle", Everybody Hurts", "Find the River", and "Leave").
“Having been together in March in Hawaii, listening to and putting down the initial demos for the record - that month in October would have been when I would have really started working on the songs, lyrically and gotten a lot done," Stipe explained on This Way Up, a documentary recorded during the making of Up and aired on Channel 4 in the UK the following year. "Bill announced the first day that he wanted to quit. That threw me into a state of mind where all I could think about is, ‘What in the hell are we going to do?’”
“When Bill retired I think it threw all of us off, but at least by that point Peter and I had written all of the music already,” continued Mills. “Well, almost all of it. Poor Michael had to deal with overcoming the block that you get when everything you know is wrong all of a sudden.”
Speaking with hindsight in 2001, again to Q, Buck revealed: “I’d noticed over the years that the guy that I loved and met back in 1980, around ’91 or ’92 he kind of slipped away. He wasn’t the same person. But I’m happy that after getting out of the band he’s back to being the guy that I knew, and is such a good person. He was never a bad person; he was just depressed. He made a whole bunch of changes: in one week he got his divorce and quit the band. You know, what else was he going to do? A sex change? Mike played Reveal for him and he thought it was the best record we’d done, and he thought that ‘Reno’ was the best song we’d ever written. But Bill’s a real gentleman; he would lie to protect our feelings."
Berry's departure is cited by some fans as a trigger to the band's commercial and creative downfall. He was not only a highly skilled drummer, he was multi-instrumentalist and lyricist, capable of playing guitar, piano, bass as well his drumming duties. Some of the best and most acclaimed R.E.M. songs like "Find the River" and "Everybody Hurts" are entirely composed by or have significant contributions from Berry.
Subsequent work (1998 to present)
After his departure, Berry had brief reunions with his former bandmates. Firstly, in 1999, where he jumped on stage to embrace with his old band members. In 2003, Berry joined the band for two songs at their October 10 show in Raleigh, North Carolina, the second-to-last date of their 28-show fall tour. Despite this, bandmembers Peter Buck and Michael Stipe said that they do not expect Berry to make a reappearance any time soon and that he remained firm on his decision to retire.
However, on 8 October, 2005 Berry came out of retirement for a second time. The four original members of R.E.M. reformed at the weekend to perform at the wedding of one of their roadies. The four played seven songs at Kingpins Bowl And Brew in Athens, Georgia, at technician Dewitt Burton's wedding.
Less than sixth months later and in the very next performance of R.E.M. together as a band, Berry rejoined R.E.M. for a third time. On April 1, 2006, Berry, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe joined Peter Buck, who was touring with The Minus 5, on stage in Athens, Georgia during the intermission of the band's final tour date to perform "Country Feedback" from R.E.M.'s album Out of Time.
Personal life
Berry married his girlfriend of two years, Mari, on March 22, 1986. They divorced eleven years later.
Trivia
- Interestingly, the song "Leave" from New Adventures in Hi-Fi was written by Bill, which is his last album with the band.
"Bill Berry"