Michael Stipe Set for Tuesday Night on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Michael Stipe is set to be the musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday night, with producer Andrew Watt joining him for the appearance. The booking follows Stipe’s April television debut of an unreleased solo song and keeps his rollout tied to late-night TV rather than a traditional album campaign.
Andrew Watt Joins Michael Stipe
Stipe and Watt recently recorded “I Played the Fool,” the song that served as the theme to Steve Carell’s HBO series The Rooster. The track also featured blink-182 drummer Travis Barker on drums and former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer on guitar and piano, giving the performance a credit list that reaches across rock, pop-punk, and television work.
April on Stephen Colbert
Back in April, Stipe appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and debuted “The Rest of Ever,” an unreleased song from his upcoming debut solo album. That April performance made the solo project more concrete after he had been teasing it since at least 2022, and it set up Tuesday night as the next public step in the same slow-build release pattern.
End of 2026 Plans
Stipe said during the April appearance that the album he has been teasing since at least 2022 will be released at the end of 2026. For a longtime R.E.M. frontman, that leaves television as the clearest place to track new material for now, with Tuesday’s Kimmel slot serving as the immediate checkpoint for how much of the solo era he wants in public view before the album window arrives.
