Gaining His Religion: Michael Stipe <3s Huckabee?

Mary Katharine Ham | January 11, 2008 11:55 AM

Said the R.E.M. frontman, “I've never seen the guy [Huckabee] talk, not even online. I have never seen him talk for 30 seconds...[and] he's really charming. I instantly wanted to call [Generation X author] Doug Coupland and say 'OK, project one year into the future for me: what the hell does this mean?' Because he's a creationist, he's a Baptist minister. I can't think of probably a single issue in which I am even remotely in the same universe as that guy.and yet, he was kind of charming and.self-deprecating. He was actually kind of a good sport, and funny, and I don't know what that means. Maybe it's a good thing that's he's being lauded right now by the right. He's an evangelical. May God bless all living creatures but my god, how weird."

The famously liberal singer known for his vegetarian tastes and intentionally ambiguous sexuality is charmed by the Huck? Although I will say that, from what I know of him, Michael Stipe is not as reflexively anti-evangelical or anti-conservative as one might expect from the average rock star. When I lived in Athens, Ga., where the band got its start and where he continues to make his home, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he helped decorate for Christmas the church his parents attended and generally seemed like a genuinely nice and tolerant guy.

Still, for Michael Stipe to respond favorably to a question about Huck really is a testament to the governor's charm. No wonder he's riding a surge.