Stipe opens up on sexuality

REM frontman Michael Stipe says he’s "80%" gay.

The singer has enjoyed relationships with both men and women in the past but says it wasn’t until meeting his current boyfriend that he realised he preferred men.

He said: “On a sliding scale of sexuality I’d place myself around 80-20, but I definitely prefer men to women. I had sex with, and enjoyed sex with, women until I met someone that I fell in love with, and who is now my boyfriend.”

The 51-year-old singer admits his sexuality led to him feeling as if he didn’t fit in anywhere while he was a young man in the 80s.

He The Observer newspaper: “I wasn’t troubled or confused, but I just felt there wasn’t a place for me. I hate and refuse to apply the term bisexual to myself. It doesn’t seem appropriate. It feels like just another label.

"For a time I was conflicted by how I was represented, and then AIDS came, and that’s an era that has still be to be spoken about in depth by people of my age. It was a very difficult time to be honest and frank about one’s sexuality. And a very scary time for people like myself, who were not able to be tested anonymously without some concern.”