With R.E.M., Hootie, Black Crowes cofounders, Howl Owl Howl finding its crowd

Best known for his role as cofounder of the Athens-bred band R.E.M., Mike Mills, was en route from Chicago to Washington, D.C., feeling positive about the debut tour of his latest project, Howl Owl Howl.

“The tour is going really well,” the multi-instrumentalist said, via a crackling cellphone connection. “The audiences have been fantastic. They’re so responsive to everything we’re doing.”

The group was then only two shows into a short jaunt that brings Mills — along with vocalist Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish and drummer Steve Gorman of the Black Crowes — to the Peach State this week.

Flanked by Rich Gilbert on keys and Sol Philcox-Littlefield on guitars, Howl Owl Howl plays the Georgia Theatre in Athens on Friday Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse on Saturday. Both shows are sold out.

"The real fun, especially for us, is seeing how (audience members) will react to the stuff they haven’t even heard yet," says Howl Owl Howl's Steve Gorman (right) with Mills and Rucker. (Courtesy of Steven Cohen Photo)

Without a new album to promote, Mills said the shows offer the three popular musicians plenty of creative freedom. “It’s a really nice mix of things, and … the best part is, our new songs seem to really stand up with the more familiar material.”

Mills added it’s a challenge to perform brand new music, even for supportive audiences. “Individually, we’ve played for so long, it’s actually fun to do something new without feeling we basically have to include certain songs. Before the show, we’ll just pick the ones we like, from our new stuff and the catalogs of our respective bands. It becomes a sort of seamless set — and so far the crowd comes along with us.”

It doesn’t hurt that Mills, Rucker and Gorman have amassed a built-in fan base of support because of their combined decades of popularity. “Our new stuff is, I think, really good,” Mills said. “And I believe the crowd expects us to be good, even though they may not know exactly what they’re gonna get before they hear it. It’s like, we’ll start playing and you can see that they know we know what we’re doing. Then we throw ‘em a little red meat with some covers along the way, just to keep it interesting for everyone.”

In a separate interview conducted a month before the tour, Gorman said the band “won’t be forcing all new stuff on everyone. We’re gonna do a few things people expect, but I think the real fun, especially for us, is seeing how they will react to the stuff they haven’t even heard yet. I think at this point in our lives and careers, we’ve sort of earned it. It’s a bit of ‘earned equity,’ if you will.”

Mills agreed. “We’re not doing this because we have to, we’re just doing it because we want to do it and we all truly enjoy playing live.”

Gorman explained the project began several years ago when he lived in Nashville. “I guess it was pre-pandemic, and they needed a band to play at my son’s school, for a benefit. I said maybe I could get some guys together. Right about then, Darius texted me about something completely unrelated. It was probably about basketball because we all love sports. I just asked him if he’d like to play some covers for the school thing and he said, ‘Yeah.’”

Mills was mentioned as an additional member of the ad hoc band but had a conflict. Still, the three musicians stayed in touch.

Post-pandemic, Gorman said he, Rucker and Mills made time to write some new material in Nashville. Joined by busy session player Tom Bukovac, the players liked what they heard. “That’s probably when we decided to actually record some of the new stuff.”

Last year, with an album’s worth of material in the can, the band decided to road test the tunes in 2025.

There was only one small hitch, Mills said. “We didn’t have a band name. But I heard this owl when I was in Spain. So we just started riffing on names around the owl motif. Somebody said, ‘How about Howl Owl Howl?’ I sent it to the guys and they said, ‘Oh, that’s terrible.’ Then I said, ‘Well, maybe just live with it for a day.’ Next day, they said ‘OK, it’s fine.’ … Personally, I like it because it doesn’t really identify us as any certain type of music.”

Mills recalled that R.E.M. had a similar problem with selecting a band name. “In 1980, we had a show coming up and we needed a name. Michael [Stipe] just picked up a dictionary and pointed at a few things. One of them was the definition of rapid eye movement. So we went with R.E.M.”

In 2018, pop starlet Ariana Grande also went with the name “R.E.M.” for a song and then a fragrance line in 2021. “And that was totally OK with us,” Mills said. “But then she put it out in a package that looked like a cassette with ‘R.E.M.’ on it. I kinda thought that was maybe a bridge too far.”

In a lighthearted swipe at the “Wicked” singer, Mills referenced the branding transgression in Howl Owl Howl’s debut song, “My Cologne.” On the recording, shared via social media platforms around Halloween, Rucker and Mills trade verses referencing the scent.

“It’s not a diss track or a ‘hater’ thing in any way,” Mills said. “It’s just meant to be funny. Either she was unaware of the existing connection to the band name or she was aware and just didn’t care. Either way, it’s just a little tongue-in-cheek thing and it rocks really well.”

Howl Owl Howl has been marketed by public relations reps as a new “supergroup,” but Mills and Gorman dismiss the label. “I think that’s both appropriate and silly at the same time,” Gorman said. “That’s not even what we’re thinking about at all with this band. This is just some old friends making music that we believe people will enjoy. We just live to play and that’s what it is. More than anything, it’s playtime with friends.”

If the tour results in interest from labels to release Howl Owl Howl’s album, Mills will be satisfied. “And if not,” he added, “We’ll still have fun being together, playing these songs.”