Thom Yorke on Life After the Radiohead Reunion Tour: "My Confidence Massively Crashed"
Thom Yorke says the hardest part of Radiohead's 2025 reunion tour wasn't the shows themselves — it was what came after. In a joint interview with Harry Styles for Rolling Stone, the Radiohead frontman said his confidence "massively crashed" once the tour ended, and it took him months to recover. The tour marked Radiohead's first live return in more than seven years, with 20 arena and venue dates across Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin between November and December 2025. The conversation, reported by NME, also touched on Yorke's complicated relationship with his own back catalogue and his 2026 Ivor Novello Academy Fellowship.
"Fun on tour, then it all fell apart"
Yorke said the touring itself was genuinely enjoyable — the trouble started afterward. He described the comedown as a total crash in his own confidence, saying it took him "several months" to get through it. It wasn't until he restarted work on his own solo record, two months later, that he felt like he was "okay" again.
He also described the emotional weight of the opening Madrid show, where the band walked onto the stage through the crowd. He said he nearly broke down in tears before a single note had been played, and the band had to reassure each other to hold steady. Yorke said he simply hadn't been exposed to that kind of moment in a very long time.
The Ivor Novello honor and distance from his own work
At the 2026 Ivor Novello Awards, Yorke received the Academy Fellowship, presented to him by Harry Styles. In his speech, Styles called Radiohead his "favourite band" and said that the soundtrack to his first time having sex was "Talk Show Host."
Yorke said the honor left him "deeply confused." He said he admires past recipients of the award, some of whom are his own heroes, but that his relationship to "that part" of his own work is very strange. By contrast, he said it's much easier for him to believe in the things he's moving toward, since they're new and need no explanation. He said Styles' speech was honest and personal, but that when the occasion turns businesslike with cameras rolling, he feels enveloped by a sense of "legacy." Earlier in the year, at the same Ivors event, he had also called the reunion tour "overwhelming," while saying he was "very, very glad we did it."
New solo album and the 2027 tour
Yorke has said he is working with producer Sam Petts-Davies on a new solo album, describing the result as quite different for him. As for the band, he said Radiohead hasn't been back in the studio together in a long time, and that he doesn't know what it would actually feel like to do so now.
On the live front, Radiohead has already confirmed 21 shows across Australia and Japan in 2027, continuing this reunion wave. NME gave the band's November 2025 London show a five-star review.