{"id":243892,"date":"2025-10-27T17:30:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243892\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T17:30:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:30:07","slug":"i-fought-tooth-and-nail-for-it-not-to-be-on-the-record-but-ed-was-like-if-its-not-im-leaving-radiohead-on-the-resurgent-ok-computer-track-tha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243892\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI fought tooth and nail for it not to be on the record, but Ed was, like, \u2018If it\u2019s not, I\u2019m leaving\u2019\u201d: Radiohead on the resurgent OK Computer track that almost split the band"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their series of European residencies<\/a> fast approaching, the five members of Radiohead<\/a> have given their first proper interview for years to the Sunday Times<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, it\u2019s fascinating. For one thing, we found out that Ed O\u2019Brien almost left the band in a dispute over whether they should include the song Let Down<\/a> on seminal 1997 album OK Computer. For a long time, this was one of the lesser known tracks on the album, but it went viral over the summer and entered the Billboard chart for the first time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That alone Thom Yorke found baffling. \u201cI find that especially bizarre,\u201d he said, “Because I fought tooth and nail for it not to be on the record, but Ed was, like, \u2018If it\u2019s not, I\u2019m leaving.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

For O\u2019Brien, Let Down is \u201cthe emotional heart of the record,” but admits that he too was “astonished\u201d when it entered the US chart. \u201cSo I told my kids, who are 18 and 21,” he recalls, “and they said, \u2018What do you expect? Teenagers are depressed. It\u2019s depressing music!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The band also talk about why they went on hiatus in 2018 and why it\u2019s taken them so long to return. \u201cI guess the wheels came off a bit, so we had to stop,\u201d Yorke says. \u201cThere were a lot of elements. The shows felt great but it was, like, let\u2019s halt now before we walk off this cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n

The singer was also grieving. His first wife and mother of his children, Rachel Owen, had just died of cancer. \u201cI needed to stop anyway,\u201d he says. \u201c[My grief] was coming out in ways that made me think, I need to take this away.\u201d<\/p>\n

We also found out that Ed O\u2019Brien was the most reluctant to return to the group after their long layoff. \u201cI was nervous going into [the recent] rehearsals because I was effectively over Radiohead. It wasn\u2019t great on the last round. I enjoyed the gigs but hated the rest. We felt disconnected, fucking spent. It happens. This has been our whole life – what else is there? Look, success has a funny effect on people – I just didn\u2019t want to do it any more. And I told them that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

\u201cI went through a very long dark night of the soul,\u201d the guitarist continued. \u201cI had a deep depression. I hit the bottom in 2021. And one of the things that was lovely coming out of it was realising how much I love these guys. I met them when I was 17 and I have gone from thinking I can\u2019t see myself doing it again to realising that, you know, we do have some stellar songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as for the big question of whether they will be playing any new material at the upcoming shows, or even if there’ll ever be any new Radiohead songs again, the various band members wouldn’t be drawn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d said Jonny Greenwood says. \u201cWe haven\u2019t thought past the tour.\u201d Thom Yorke, meanwhile, is “just stunned we got this far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With their series of European residencies fast approaching, the five members of Radiohead have given their first proper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-243892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}