Watch Michael Stipe, James Franco, Colbert Recap 2016 With “It’s the End of the Year As We Know It” Song

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe was a guest on last night’s episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” As well as sitting down for a chat, an enjoyably miserable Stipe helped Colbert perform a 2016 recap song called “It’s the End of the Year As We Know It,” in which Stipe stubbornly refuses to close the chorus with “and I feel fine.” Toward the end of the song, fellow guest James Franco stepped out to join in. Watch it go down below.

Addressing the issue of his enormous beard, Stipe says, “I get a lot of, ‘Hey, elf guy, Bill Murray, skid-row Santa,’ around this time of year. I’m more going for Zeus.” Of whether R.E.M. will return, he adds, “I saw PJ Harvey, Radiohead—you see them up there and it’s like, wow, I kinda wanna jump up there again.” 

Earlier this year, Stipe sang a rendition of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

Read “An Oral History of R.E.M.’s Out of Time.”

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