William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M.

After a successful recovery he left the music industry two years later to become a farmer, and has since maintained a low profile, making sporadic reunions with R.E.M.

At the age of three, Berry moved with his family to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, where they would remain for the next seven years.

It was there that he met bass guitarist Mike Mills, and they played together in several different bands, including Shadowfax.

They rented an apartment on Arlington Place in Macon, and Bill landed a job at the Paragon Booking Agency next door.

[3][4] Berry and Mills moved to Athens, Georgia, in late 1978, where they met Michael Stipe and Peter Buck.

In addition to his duties as a drummer, Berry contributed occasional guitar, bass, mandolin, vocals, keyboards and piano on studio tracks.

Berry also made notable songwriting contributions, particularly for "Everybody Hurts" and "Man on the Moon", both from Automatic for the People.

Stipe's original lyric was "hang your freedom fighters" which, given the Reagan administration's active support for the Nicaraguan contra "freedom fighters", sounded violent and militant, although Stipe himself countered that the line could be taken multiple ways ("hang" as in either "lynch" or "frame on a wall").

Berry's objection ultimately led the line to be changed to "hang your freedom higher."

bandmates Peter Buck, Mike Mills, rocker Warren Zevon, and Bryan Cook.

On March 1, 1995, at the Patinoire Auditorium in Lausanne, Switzerland, Berry collapsed on stage during an R.E.M.

They continued to tour with several accompanying musicians, including long-time sidemen Ken Stringfellow and Scott McCaughey and employed Joey Waronker and Bill Rieflin as live drummers over the next decade.

"[7] Berry left the music business and became a farmer, working on his hay farm in Farmington, Georgia, near Athens in late 1997.

Prior to the group's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Berry granted his first interview in several years, discussing life after retirement.

have been sporadic, but did include recording for the Tourette Syndrome Charity Album Welcome Companions in 2000.

On May 11, 2018, he performed at the Winterville Auditorium in Winterville, Georgia, as part of a quintet named Mayor Ferrelle and the Councilmen, formed by the band's vocalist and lead guitarist, city mayor Dodd Ferrelle.

My theory is that he uses the space between the high hat and the snare drum in a kind of disco-y way, without being too disco.

"[10] In 1999, Joey Waronker explained the process of how he learned Berry's drum parts.

[13] The origins of the group are a chance meeting between Mike Mantione and Berry on a street in Athens.

[13] The group have released one single and video called "All Your Friends Are Dying" and performed a hometown show on November 27, 2022.

[15] On February 8, 2024, Berry joined the Michael Shannon / Jason Narducy band on stage at the 40 Watt Club in Athens to perform the piano part in "Perfect Circle", the song that R.E.M.

When crack began to infiltrate Athens in the early 1990s, the couple moved to nearby Farmington.