{"id":9280,"date":"2026-03-09T16:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/michael-stipe-rooster-theme-song\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T16:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:18:18","slug":"michael-stipe-rooster-theme-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/michael-stipe-rooster-theme-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Stipe Struts On \u2018Rooster\u2019 Theme Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spin.com\/files\/2023\/04\/GettyImages-1180669393-scaled.jpg\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1703\" alt=\"\"><figcaption>(photo: Adam Berry \/ Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Days after he made a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/03\/michael-stipe-shannon-narducy\/\">surprise appearance<\/a> during an R.E.M. tribute show led by actor Michael Shannon and musician Jason Narducy in Brooklyn, N.Y., the band\u2019s former frontman Michael Stipe has new solo music available. The artist teamed with Pearl Jam\/Lady Gaga producer Andrew Watt for \u201cI Played the Fool,\u201d which serves as the theme song to the brand new Steve Carrell-starring <em>HBO<\/em> series <em>Rooster<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI Played the Fool\u201d was co-written by Stipe and Watt and features blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Pearl Jam touring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. Sample the track below.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/03\/kacey-musgraves-new-single-album\/\">Kacey Musgraves Teasing New LP With \u2018Dry Spell\u2019<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/03\/jonny-greenwood-shye-ben-tzur-rajasthan-express\/\">Jonny Greenwood Regroups With Shye Ben Tzur, Rajasthan Express<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2026\/03\/kim-gordon-play-me-review\/\">Kim Gordon Is Captivating, Commanding On \u2018PLAY ME\u2019<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"0PxkldueTws\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Says Stipe, \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to lend my voice to\u00a0<em>Rooster<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 as a giant fan of everyone involved, it\u2019s a real honor to be included with \u2018I Played The Fool.&#8217;\u201d Adds Watt, \u201cMichael Stipe is a hero of mine. A chance to write a song with him was that of a dream. He is one of the true great songwriters of this lifetime, and he did what only he could do on this song. He sets\u00a0<em>Rooster\u00a0<\/em>off to the moon by making you laugh and cry at the same time with the best clapping TV theme song since\u00a0<em>Friends<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Rooster<\/em>, Carrell plays a college professor who doubles as an author of paperbacks best read aimlessly on a beach. The series was co-created by Bill Lawrence, whose model\/musician daughter Charlotte is engaged to Watt. Says fellow co-creator Matt Tarses, \u201cour plan had always been to use music from our own time in college in the \u201980s. No band was more important to me then than R.E.M. When Andrew told us he thought he could get Michael Stipe to write and record a new song for us, we said, cool, good luck with that. We knew this would never happen. But a few months later, Andrew sent an early demo of \u2018I Played the Fool\u2019 and when I listened to it on my phone, I cried. I really did. Saying we are excited to have this great song and this iconic voice on our main title is a huge understatement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Stipe, \u201cI Played the Fool\u201d is a rare taste of solo music since R.E.M.\u2019s 2011 breakup, although he\u2019s been working on his full-length debut for years.<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(photo: Adam Berry \/ Getty Images) Days after he made a surprise appearance during an R.E.M. tribute show led by actor Michael Shannon and musician Jason Narducy in Brooklyn, N.Y.,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3596,995,4386,6,24,4334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andrew-watt","category-josh-klinghoffer","category-michael-stipe","category-news","category-pushly","category-travis-barker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}