REM's Stipe slams George Bush

REM frontman Michael Stipe has said he "despises" George W. Bush.

In an interview with BBC 6 Music, the rock star disclosed that his band's latest single 'Man-Sized Wreath' was written about the outgoing US president.

He noted that the track's opening lyrics, 'Turn on the TV and what do I see/A pageantry of empty gestures all lined up for me', are "a reference to our current president, who I very publicly despise".

Stipe continued: "I just can't stand the guy or his administration and it was about him going to the graveside of Martin Luther King, one of my heroes, and I think desecrating the memory of that great man and his work by being there during the Iraq war.

"I found it pathetic so I wrote that song about it."

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