On This Day, Dec. 17, 1958: R.E.M.’s Mike Mills was born

On This Day, Dec. 17, 1958 …

R.E.M. bassist and founding member Mike Mills was born in Orange County, California. He is best known for his songwriting and harmonizing backing vocals.

After becoming a huge local success in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. recorded their first single, “Radio Free Europe,” in 1981, which became a hit. They recorded their debut EP, Chronic Town, in October 1981. It was released on I.R.S. records in August 1982, with their debut album, Murmur, dropping in 1983.

R.E.M. went on to release 15 studio albums, seeing a huge commercial success with 1991’s Out of Time, featuring the hit “Losing My Religion,” and 1992’s Automatic for the People, which featured such classics as “Man on the Moon” and “Everybody Hurts.”

R.E.M. broke up in 2011, and since then Mills has continued to make music, collaborating with other artists and as a member of the band The Baseball Project.

Mills was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with R.E.M. in 2007 and to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2024. At the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction he reunited with his R.E.M. bandmates, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Bill Berry, to perform “Losing My Religion,” the first performance with all four members of the band since 1995.