Thom Yorke: “The Radiohead tour sent me into crisis. I fell apart”

The live comeback of Radiohead in 2025 was one of the most eagerly awaited musical events of recent years, but for Thom Yorke it also had some unexpected psychological consequences. The British band's frontman has revealed that he went through a period of deep insecurity after the tour wrapped up, despite the excitement and emotion he experienced during the shows. Yorke opened up about it himself in a conversation with Harry Styles for Rolling Stone US, looking back on the reunion that, after more than seven years away from the stage, brought Radiohead back in front of audiences for twenty shows across Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin.

"After the Radiohead tour in 2025, even though I had an amazing time during the shows, my reaction was to completely fall apart. A huge collapse, especially when it came to my self-confidence," the musician admitted. It was a crisis that took him several months to recover from, with his balance gradually returning only once he got back to work on new material: "It took months. I had to start working on my record again, two months later, before I could finally think: 'Oh, good. I'm fine now. Everything's okay.'"
For Yorke, coming to terms with the past and with Radiohead's artistic legacy has never been easy. The singer explained that he feels far more at ease when he can focus on new projects, free from the weight of expectations and the band's history. "I believe in looking forward. It's easy to do, because it's something new. I don't have to explain it to anyone, and that makes me happy," he observed.

And yet, the return to the stage also delivered moments of extraordinary emotional intensity. Yorke recalled, in particular, the reunion's opening night in Madrid, when the five musicians walked through the crowd to reach the stage: "I wanted to burst into tears and we hadn't even played a single note yet. It had been such a long time since I'd found myself immersed in something like that. Walking through all those people... We were all there thinking: 'Fuck. Fuck.'"
His complicated relationship with his own musical legacy also came up when discussing the Ivor Novello Awards, where Yorke received the Academy Fellowship, a prestigious honor presented to him by none other than Harry Styles. Styles called Radiohead his favorite band, adding a decidedly personal memory: losing his virginity while listening to "Talk Show Host". An anecdote that Yorke appreciated far more than the ceremony's celebratory trappings. "I have a very strange relationship with that side of my job," he admitted. "When it starts to feel like being part of a corporation, with all those cameras filming... I don't know, man. It's a feeling tied to the weight of this whole legacy."

Meanwhile, the English musician has turned his focus back to his solo career and is working on a new album with producer Sam Petts-Davies, hinting that the material will be "pretty fucking different" from his previous releases.
As for Radiohead's recording future, there's nothing concrete to report for now. "We haven't worked together. We haven't gone into the studio as a band in a very long time, so I don't even know what it would feel like today," Yorke explained, leaving the question of a possible new album wide open. The live reunion, on the other hand, will continue in 2027: the band already has 21 more shows planned across Australia and Japan, confirming that, at least on stage, the Radiohead chapter is far from over.

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