CRAIG: Did you struggle with the ephemera of it all? You know, you’re in a band playing music and then suddenly you’re the biggest thing ever—was that a struggle?

YORKE: It was a struggle. I guess everything went bang during OK Computer, and I didn’t really notice until such a point that I just started to become strangely catatonic. I’d come off stage and could not speak at all—and that was not just the exposure to the fame side of things. It was more like I had no concept, no understanding, of what the hell it was that these people wanted. I’d go onstage doing this thing, trying to fill this arena that I can’t fill because I don’t understand what this is. It’s like you’re given a job that’s beyond you. And it’s taken me years to realize what works in those big situations.

CRAIG: Are you enjoying what you’re doing now?

YORKE: Yeah. Around that time of OK Computer, I had a series of mini breakdowns where the public persona—this thing, this face, this person who writes this music … I would walk past that person in the mirror or listen to that person playing guitar and I didn’t know who they were. It was very odd, you know? You must have had that a little.

CRAIG: No, I completely relate to that. Did you talk to anybody? Was there anybody in the business who you could ask about it?

YORKE: Yes. Michael Stipe was around and he was amazing. He’s my really good friend still. He told me, “When it feels bad, just shut down. Be there but just shut down.” And then he also said, “Come on. Let’s go and get drunk with U2,” and things like that.

CRAIG: And so you did.

YORKE: And so I did.

CRAIG: Do you think it helped to go off and be a little more rock-‘n’-roll and have that experience? I’m talking from my own point of view now, but isn’t there that moment when you suddenly realize that if you’re not at least enjoying what you’re doing or getting some pleasure from it, then what’s the point?YORKE: Absolutely. And then there’s something else that happened when the kids started coming along. When you’re a parent, then you still have to commit to this concept of, “Okay, I’m basically out of action now for three months.” So if you don’t commit to doing that when you commit to doing it—and then if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing when you go and do it—you really are screwed because—

CRAIG: It’s a lot of effort.

YORKE: It’s a lot of effort, and you’re not coming back with anything. You’re coming back damaged, rather than coming back and going, “Wow, that was fun. When can we do that again?” We’ve had lots of discussions in Radiohead about this over the past few years about, like, “Well, hang on. Who is driving this?” It’s a disaster if it’s the thing itself driving it. So we’re going to choose to carry on. We’re all big lads now—we’re all over 40—and we’ve all got a hell of a lot of other shit going on, so if we choose to do it, we’re basically doing it for ourselves and being selfish about it because otherwise we’ll go stark-raving mad.