Speaking to The Guardian’s Rosanna Greenstreet, Stipe covered a variety of topics in a rapid-fire interview consisting of brief answers to questions. When the interviewer asked Stipe what’s the closest he’s come to death, he gave a terse answer with no exposition.

“Scarlet fever, 1962. Hypothermia, 1974. Lightning strike, 1986,” he said.

In 2019, Stipe told The Guardian a bit more about his childhood brush with death. “I had scarlet fever as a 2-year-old, and it boils your brain. You use your synapses differently,” he said.

Years after, Stipe was a teenage Boy Scout, according to The Express, when he somehow got lost and wound up alone on the top of a mountain. He soon began experiencing symptoms of hypothermia, including hallucinations and uncontrollable shivers. Even his father, a seasoned military man, thought his teenage son was dead, Stipe said.

Finally, in 1986, the R.E.M. singer suffered his third brush with death. Details are scarce, but according to Indiana Public Media, Stipe had purchased a taxicab and was driving it through Georgia when it was struck by lightning. Although the experience may have been harrowing for Stipe, cars are actually safe places to be during lightning, according to the National Weather Service.