Denis Leary doesn't like R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People." He proclaimed as much way back in 1992, the year after the Out Of Time single came out, when he did an MTV spot based on his standup routine poking fun at the state of rock 'n' roll. "R.E.M. 'Shiiiiiny haaaaapy people'… hey, hey, hey, pull that bus over to the side of the Pretentiousness Turnpike…," the comedian seethed in the promo. "I got two words for Michael Stipe: Steve. Tyler." That sounds a bit harsh, but even Stipe has expressed some mixed feelings about the polarizing bubblegum hit, which featured the B-52s' Kate Pierson, got R.E.M. invited to Sesame Street, and reached the Top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100. The R.E.M. frontman told Space Ghost "I hate that song" back in 1995 and explained to The Quietus in 2011 that "it’s just a little bit embarrassing that it became as big a hit as it did."
Leary, who now stars in the sitcom Going Dutch and has been revisiting his '90s MTV era lately, went on the Rich Eisen Show the other day with a pretty good Stipe story. He dispelled the rumor that R.E.M. asked him to be in the "Shiny Happy People" video after they saw that MTV commercial. But he revealed how it did give him an impromptu bonding moment with Stipe. Leary recalled:
I did an MTV spot about "Shiny Happy People" and some other stuff I hated. There was real anger and range. And then I was in a restaurant in Los Angeles with Sean Penn and it was kind of empty, we were having an early dinner, and it was an outdoor patio so you could smoke. So we're just sitting there, two angry Irish guys smoking.
My back was to the door and Penn goes, "Hey hey hey hey, Michael Stipe's on his way over here." I go, "What?!" He goes, "Michael Stipe's walking over..." And he walked up and he hands me a little matchbook, and walks away, doesn't say anything. I open the matchbook cover... and it says, "I hate 'Shiny Happy People' too." And so we look over, and he's at a table and he's smiling. So Sean and I went over and sat with him. He was the greatest guy, great sense of humor about himself.
Watch him tell the story below around the three-minute mark.
R.I.P. George Lowe.
