Michael Stipe and Andrew Watt teamed up for a performance of their recent song, “I Played the Fool” on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The rousing track is the main title theme from HBO series Rooster, which stars Steve Carell, and appears on the Season 1 soundtrack for the comedy show.
Watt, who recently produced Paul McCartney‘s new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, took on guitar duties while Stipe was center stage on vocals.
“I Played the Fool” was written specifically for Rooster, created by Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses. The song marks Stipe’s first in three years and came about thanks to Watt.
“Our plan had always been to use music from our own time in college in the ’80s,” Tarses explained in a statement when the song was released. “No band was more important to me then than R.E.M. When Andrew Watt told us he thought he could get Michael Stipe to write and record a new song for us, we said, ‘Cool, good luck with that.’ We knew this would never happen. But a few months later, Andrew sent an early demo of ‘I Played the Fool.’ And when I listened to it on my phone, I cried. I really did. Saying we are excited to have this great song and this iconic voice on our main title is a huge understatement.”
The singer has only released a handful of songs under his own name since his former band split amicably in 2011, including ‘I Played The Fool’ with Andrew Watt, Josh Klinghoffer and Travis Barker earlier this week for the new show
He has, however, been working on his first solo album for several years and in a new interview with The Times, he has given fans some significant updates on the record’s progress.
“I’m working on a solo album,” he said. “But it’s taken longer than I wanted.”
Explaining the delays, he continued: “Covid didn’t help, but I’m finishing it. When the band split, I just needed a break. I took five years but I got pulled back into music. It’s been a struggle. That’s the main thing. I want it to be great, but I’ve got the pressure of having been in R.E.M. and it’s a high bar, because I want this to be as good as that, and that’s near impossible.”
“So it’s fucking exciting but also terrifying, and I’m doing the music for the first time too, and I think I’m good at it but not great,” he added. “But I love my voice. I don’t like my speaking voice but I love my singing voice, and I so want to immerse myself back into offering music to the world.”
