(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Mon 5 January 2026 16:30, UK
According to Thom Yorke, one of the biggest misconceptions about Radiohead is that they have always been stuck in one place.
When the rock leader was once asked about this, and whether he agreed with the opinion that the band were just tortured millennials stuck on the same issues, he responded that maybe they were once, but that’s not all there is. Like Bob Dylan, he said, they’re constantly moving. But those types of opinions didn’t stop him from getting wound up at the best of times, and letting the outside noise run the show.
“If you get stuck in other people’s impressions of what you do, it actually starts informing how you carry on – and then you know you’re in trouble, because then you’re part of this noise that actually was nothing to do with you in the first place,” Yorke told The Observer in 2004, recalling how it was around Ok Computer that he “got so silly” that he ultimately had to switch off to it all.
This was also a big part of the reason why Yorke was so burnt out after the release of the record, and why the subsequent shows – their iconic Glastonbury set included – were constantly on the cusp of crashing at the hands of Yorke’s unchecked exhaustion. In fact, the heat got to him so much that he almost walked off the Pyramid Stage and said goodbye once and for all.
Of course, that wasn’t the case, but it all comes down to wanting to express in a way that pushed Yorke somewhere darker – a need to prove himself that went beyond simple descriptions of “millennial angst” and somewhere that better reflected the thoughts and experiences of a lyricist that couldn’t be boxed into one simple arena.
All of that also comes from being what Yorke once described as someone without a shield when it comes to being absorbent and affected by the things around him. Often, this means that he gets intense during the creative process, with certain parts leaving him in a “weird space for about a week”, but that’s part and parcel of how he does things and why. And another reason why, when he discovers other artists whose words and worlds cut deep, he holds on to them forever.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that one of these is REM’s Michael Stipe. A master of words himself, Stipe has come up in multiple Yorke interviews for a variety of different reasons. Beyond his mentorship, one of them is that, to Yorke, Stipe is the embodiment of authenticity and someone who never performs to appease others. As he once said, he was a hero growing up because “he enjoys it, but he never smiles at all”.
Elsewhere, he elaborated on Stipe’s depth, describing his music as a deeply visceral experience that’s like a kaleidoscope of all life experiences. “[He is] a genius,” he said. “A master when it comes to conveying impressions. His lyrics are like a car ride along a street full of traffic signs and billboards. A neon-colored trip, total cinema in your head, and endlessly inspiring. I assume that there is wisdom in all of his lines.”
It’s easy to see Stipe’s influence in Radiohead’s music, specifically in Yorke’s freedom of expression when it comes to the parts of his mind he was likely encouraged to obscure as a kid, like feeling like an outsider or growing disillusioned with the world around him, and he also pushed Yorke to a new level of empowerment when it came to his own lyrics, and to believe in the weight behind them without questioning whether they were actually good or not.
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