Radiohead’s Thom Yorke shares why he was already sick of OK Computer upon release
Yorke reflected on the iconic 1997 album in a new conversation with Harry Styles
Radiohead’s seminal record OK Computer is widely considered one of the best albums of all time — but Thom Yorke was over it by the time it came out.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Harry Styles for Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians series, the 57-year-old frontman admitted that the “worst thing” for him about the 1997 album was how quickly he got tired of it.
“When we finished that record, we'd been already playing those songs too much,” Yorke said in the video published Thursday. “And like, then when the manager said to us, ‘Now you're going to go on tour for 2 years,’ I'm like, I literally begged them, ‘I can't, I can't do it. I need to move on.’”
He continued: “Two years later, we were still going, you know, and that was just really f***ed up because the moving on thing is like, yeah, that’s not a luxury. That’s entirely essential. You know? I think everybody sort of has their different ways of dealing with this. Like personally, I rely on the sort of thing of not doing it for too long. I wish I could do it for a long time. I can’t.”
Radiohead — formed in Oxfordshire in 1985 by Yorke, brothers Jonny and Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien and Philip Selway — launched the Against Demons world tour on the day that the album was put out, May 22, 1997. The group’s massive run of more than 100 international dates concluded April 18, 1998, in New York.
Yorke and his bandmates were vocal about having a tough time during the world tour. Bassist Colin Greenwood said in a 2003 interview with Spin magazine that the tour was the “worst point” in the band’s career.
“There is nothing worse than having to play in front of 20,000 people when someone—when Thom—absolutely does not want to be there, and you can see that hundred-yard stare in his eyes,” Colin said at the time. “You hate having to put your friend through that experience. You find yourself wondering how you got there.”
The stress in the band was captured by interviews and backstage footage shown in the 1998 British documentary Meeting People is Easy, directed by Grant Gee. The film followed the band on the tour, which included Radiohead’s first headlining Glastonbury Festival performance in 1997.
After the tour, Yorke dealt with writer’s block as the band felt burnout that ultimately led to their 2000 hit album Kid A, which ushered in the band’s shift to electronic music.
Radiohead will return to the stage in mid-2027 for residencies in Australia and Japan.
