R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills stole the show Thursday when he leaked David Letterman’s decision to retire before it was officially announced via Twitter. Mills and Peter Buck are appearing on the show tonight, and caught wind of the news early at the pre-recorded taping. In a video interview shortly after he broke the news, Mills said that he figured the whole studio audience would be sharing the same news.
“Right place, right time. What can I say?” he said.
After breaking the news he said he also estimates that he now has 100 new Twitter followers.
“I didn’t want to blow Dave’s announcement, but I figured there’s 300 people in the audience all tweeting the same thing. So, I figured it’s all right,” he said.
Watch Mills’ interview about breaking the Letterman retirement news below:
R.E.M first performed on a Letterman-hosted show in 1983 — the song was “Radio Free Europe.”
Letterman said he hopes to retire in 2015. The talk show mainstay is turning 67 next week and has the longest run of any late-night host in U.S. television history, according to the Denver Post. Hundreds and hundreds of musicians have performed on Letterman’s shows, on which many made their television debuts, including R.E.M.
Here’s the infamous tweet:
Dave just announced his retirement #2015
— Mike Mills (@m_millsey)
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James Garcia is a community reporter at the Loveland Reporter-Herald and a new blogger at Reverb. Follow him on Twitter @JamesGarciaRH.
