Manic Street Preachers‘ Nicky Wire has said he “deeply regrets” saying he wished that R.E.M‘s Michael Stipe would die of AIDS.
The Manic Street Preachers bassist was previously blasted for his 1993 comments, in which he said he hoped that that Stipe would “go the same way as Freddie Mercury”, but claimed alcohol often “altered” his personality.
Admitting there was “no excuse” for his comments, Stipe told MOJO magazine: “It is strange, because I’m not lying when I talk about my shyness when I was young.
“I’m always dubious about people who say they have no regrets. I have millions. I deeply regret some mad things, just awful things I said. Spiteful things.
“And I haven’t got any excuse. Sometimes I was absolutely hammered on Babycham and vodka. You do forget how much drink can alter you.
“I haven’t had a drink for 11 years. Not a big crisis or anything, just, ‘I’ve got kids and I can’t get up in the morning any more.’”
Wire also admitted that his past comments have come back to haunt him when it comes to reprimanding his teenage children.
“My daughter really loves to pick these things up. At the dinner table she’ll say, ‘You can’t talk Dad. Look at what you said in 1992. Look what you said in ’94…’,” he explained.
In the same interview, Wire also admitted that he would rather “fucking stab my eyes out with a pencil” than accept a knighthood or OBE.
Wire subsequently criticised “left-leaning actors and pop stars” for “queuing up” to accept honours from the monarchy.
Meanwhile, the Manics recently shared their new single ‘The Secret He Had Missed’, featuring Sunflower Bean‘s Julia Cumming.
“It’s probably the most Abba-influenced track on the album, the piano track especially,” Wire told NME. “It all came out really naturally. It’s what we would call pop in our world – that glacial kind of controlled energy that comes out in something melancholic, but uplifting.”
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