We did not see this beef coming, but apparently R.E.M.’s Mike Mills has a bone to pick with pop singer and Wicked film star Ariana Grande and it’s playing out in a new song called “My Cologne.”
Mills, who is part of the new supergroup Howl Owl Howl with Hootie and the Blowifish’s Darius Rucker and The Black Crowes’ Steve Gorman, has apparently decided to use the power of song to respond after he felt that Grande had been starting to infringe a little too closely on his retired Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band.
What’s Behind Mike Mills’ Beef With Ariana Grande?
So why did Mike Mills and Howl Owl Howl write a song called “My Cologne” calling out Ariana Grande?
In a video shared to the Howl Owl Howl Instagram account, Mills explains the crux of the lighthearted beef.
“Ariana Grande put out a record not long ago and her first single was called ‘R.E.M.,” shares Mills. “Okay, sure. It’s the dream stage of sleep. That’s where we got it. It’s universal, that’s fine.”
“Then she put out a line of perfume called R.E.M.,” the bassist continues. “And I said, ‘Well, that’s okay.’ And then one of the containers for her perfume was a cassette. I mean literally, a cassette, and it said R.E.M. on it. And then I said, ‘Okay, that’s going over a line. I gotta say something about that.'”
“We’re not upset or anything, but I thought it was just funny,” confirms Mills. “So I wrote a song called ‘My Cologne’ that the chorus line is ‘I want to smell like Ariana Grande and I think she wants you to smell like me.'”
“And it’s just, you know, it’s all in good fun,” concludes the bassist. “And I hope she likes it, but that’s our single.”
Howl Owl Howl, “My Cologne”
More About Howl Owl Howl
In late September, news of the new supergroup Howl Owl Howl started making the rounds. The trio of Rucker, Mills and Gorman first played together back in 2019 when Gorman called upon Mills and Rucker to join him for a Nashville benefit performance. The experience went so well that by 2021, they decided to expand their working relationship beyond the one-off benefit and began writing together.
READ MORE: New Supergroup Features Members of Three Big ’90s Bands
“The concept from day one was, ‘Let’s just write a bunch of songs together and see what we think, see if there’s anything cool that comes from it’ – there was no grand design beyond that,” Gorman says. “And then we all hit this realization of, ‘This is actually really good! I think we’ve caught something.’”
The group has yet to announce a release date for their debut album, but “My Cologne” is their first musical offering to listeners as a band.
You can expect to hear more of the new music this coming week when Howl Owl Howl launches their first U.S. tour Nov. 3 in Indianapolis at The Vogue. Dates are currently booked through Nov. 15 in Atlanta. See all the stops and get ticketing info through the band’s website.
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Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire
