Michael Stipe later explained in an interview with Charlie Rose how the lyrics were written independently of the music, which had no prior association with the song's eventual lyrical content regarding Kaufman. Stipe recounted that the rest of the members of R.E.M. had written and performed the music of the song and recorded it along with the rest of the "Automatic for the People" album during studio sessions in Seattle. As of the final week of the recording sessions, Stipe was still struggling to write lyrics for the song, and the other band members continued to plead with him to finish it. Stipe attempted to argue that the track should be an instrumental, but his bandmates were insistent. Stipe listened to the track on a walk around Seattle on his Walkman cassette player and was inspired to write about the performances of entertainer Andy Kaufman. After Stipe went back to the studio to complete the vocal track, the master was mixed that night and sent out the following day to be mastered.