“I sort of got off on that”: Ed O’Brien admits he was happy when Radiohead initially broke up – and didn’t expect the band to ever get back together
Radiohead’s return to the stage in 2025 marked the end of a seven-year hiatus – one that guitarist Ed O’Brien initially believed was permanent, and was, at the time, happy about.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, O’Brien looks back on the period following Radiohead’s 2018 tour, noting how he’d felt creatively and emotionally spent after decades in the band.
READ MORE: Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood “found it strange” the band didn’t play any new material on their recent reunion tour
“I was done with Radiohead,” he says. “It had got to a place where I just wasn’t enjoying it. I just didn’t resonate with it anymore, and I wanted to do my own thing… I think we’d run out of road. We’d run out of inspiration.”
That sense of burnout had been building for a while. The sessions for Radiohead’s 2016 album A Moon Shaped Pool were reportedly difficult, as was the tour that followed. While the rest of the band were keen to get back on the road, O’Brien admits he was reluctant.
“The others said they wanted to tour. I didn’t really want to tour, and they knew that,” the guitarist explains. “But I did it and I’m glad I did. I saw it through to the end.”
When that run finally came to a close, the band had stepped away – a move that, for O’Brien, felt both final and, in some ways, welcome.
“It was kind of scary at first,” he says. “I really thought that was it on Radiohead. Actually, I sort of got off on that. I was just, ‘I’m done with it. I want another life.’”
Thankfully for Radiohead fans, that feeling didn’t last forever. The band eventually regrouped, returning to the stage in 2025 for a limited run of shows across Europe, including Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin.
For O’Brien, being back onstage with the band has brought a new perspective: “That tour was very, very emotional, very profound. We all felt that. We’d look at one another on that stage, like, ‘This is amazing.’ I feel like I’m the luckiest person on the planet, and I’m not just saying that.”
Looking ahead, Radiohead are taking a more measured approach to touring. Rather than jumping straight back into a full schedule, the band intends to spread things out.
“It’s definitely happening,” O’Brien says of future live plans. “What we’re going to do is, every year we’re going to do a different continent, and we’re going to do 20 shows each year. No more, no less.”
He also confirms that 2026 will be a quiet year for the band, with plans to reconvene the following year: “We won’t do anything this year, but we’ll do something next year.”
The approach, he adds, is about making sure they can still give each show their full energy.
“We want to give absolutely everything each night,” says O’Brien. We do not ever want it to be like we’re going through the motions or we’re having to run on empty. We’ve got to be able to do it. And you know what? We’re not spring chickens anymore.”
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