So Connie, there I was, on the planet far, far away.

Really, Trevor?

Ground was so soft, so squishy.

Must have been zero gravity.

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I'm Brian Hyatt. This is Rolling Stone Music Now.

Today I'm going to talk with the author, Peter Ames Carlin, about a great book he released late last year.

It's called The Name of This Band is REM, a biography.

And as you might guess, it is, in fact, a biography of the band REM, a very great and important band, and a biography. And as you might guess, it is in fact a biography of the band REM, a very great

and important band and a reminder of how great and important and interesting they were.

Welcome, Peter.

Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

So one of the things that's great about this book is it's a reminder that you don't need access to the actual

members of a band to write a great and revealing book about them. And in fact, I think sometimes

there's advantages to not having that access. That's great to hear because it can be a little

daunting to get into a project and try to write about somebody and get to know them without direct access.

But on the other hand, it also can be sort of freeing in the sense that you're not being influenced by what they want you to say about them or what they want you to know and what they don't want you to know.

But the guys in REM, I mean, they're an interesting and paradoxical band of folks because they, on the one hand, obviously, like any artist, they want their work to be well known.

They want people to hear their music. They want people to be impacted by it and to

respond to it. And so getting their work as high profile as possible is terrific. But on the other

...