Maps and Legends

The most thorough and comprehensive biography of R.E.M. yet published, Maps and Legends covers not just the band’s entire career, but also delves deeply into the childhoods of each of the band members, tells the story of each of the teenage bands one or more of them played in before R.E.M. - among them Bad Habits, Shadowfax, the Back Door Band, the Frustrations, Gangster, and the Wuoggerz - and concludes with a detailed look at the solo careers of Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe.

John Hunter was born in 1968 in Raleigh, North Carolina. At the age of sixteen, he began to sneak into local clubs such as the Brewery and the Cat's Cradle, where he saw artists ranging from Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, and the Replacements to the dB's, Let's Active, and the Connells. He first saw R.E.M. in the fall of 1984 at Duke University's Page Auditorium. From 1986 to 1991, he studied English at the University of Georgia, during which time he also regularly performed at the 40 Watt, Uptown Lounge, Rockfish Palace, and other local clubs. More so than any other biographer, he witnessed firsthand major events in R.E.M.'s career and in the larger Athens music scene during the second half of the 1980s.

He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his wife Amanda Holland-Hunter.

On May 1, 2024, the text of the Apple Book edition was updated to match that of the revised and expanded third printing of the trade paperback edition.