American singer-songwriter and producer Michael Stipe was BOTD in 1960. Born in Decatur, Georgia, to a military family, he had an itinerant childhood, living variously in Texas, Alabama, Illinois and West Germany. While studying in Georgia, he met Peter Buck, with whom he formed the alternative rock band R.E.M., scoring hits with Radio Free Europe, The One I Love, Driver 8, Fall On Me and It’s The End of the World As We Know It. They found global success with the albums Out of Time and Automatic For the People, two of the most revered albums of the 1990s, spawning the hits Drive, Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts and Man on the Moon. Much of the band’s appeal focused on Stipe, whose striking good looks, shaven head, distinctive torch-song baritone and impassioned performance style made him an omnisexual object of desire. A committed environmental activist, he collected a dizzying posse of celebrity gal-pals including Patti Smith, Courtney Love and Tori Amos. For much of his career, Stipe avoided declaring his sexual orientation, shrugging off rumours that he had HIV and calling himself “an equal opportunity lech”. In 2001, he came out as gay, disclosing that he was in a relationship with “an amazing man” (the author Douglas A Martin, whose 2000 novel Outline of My Lover is based on Stipe). Stipe established a film production company, helping 1990s indie hits Being John Malkovich, Velvet Goldmine and Man on the Moon. Following R.E.M’s amicable disanding in 2011, Stipe has released occasional music singles and two books of photography. He lives in New York and Berlin with his partner, the photographer Thomas Dozol.