Michael StipeREM frontman Michael Stipe has confirmed he’s gay after years of speculation.

He told Spin magazine recently: “It was super complicated for me in the ’80s.”

“I was totally open with the band and my family and my friends and certainly the people I was sleeping with. I thought it was pretty obvious.”

But he deflected questions on his sexuality because “didn’t always see” how being publicly gay could help others: “But I see now, of course, that’s the case.”

“I’d just never felt strongly enough about a particular relationship to say, ‘Yeah, he’s my boyfriend, that is what it is.’”

“[But] now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there.”