For the first time in nearly a decade, Radiohead are reuniting for a European tour, and in a rare joint interview, the band has opened up about the personal and creative fractures that led to their long absence. Speaking with The Times UK, the members reflected on the final stages of their 2016 A Moon Shaped Pool tour, the grief that followed, and the slow process of finding their footing again.

Frontman Thom Yorke said the group reached a point of exhaustion that made continuing impossible. “I guess the wheels came off a bit, so we had to stop,” he recalled. “The shows felt great, but it was like, let’s halt now before we walk off this cliff.”

For Yorke, the end of the tour coincided with personal tragedy. His former partner, artist Rachel Owen, the mother of his two children, died of cancer in 2016, shortly after the album’s release. “I needed to stop anyway because I hadn’t really given myself time to grieve,” he said. “My grief was coming out in ways that made me think, I need to take this away.”

The frontman added that music, usually his escape, became painful to face. “Music can be a way to find meaning in things,” Yorke said. “But even at my lowest point, I couldn’t let go of it. There were moments when I would sit at the piano, looking for solace, and it literally hurt. The music hurt, because you’re going through trauma.”

Guitarist Ed O’Brien said he had reached his own breaking point by the end of that run. “It wasn’t great on the last round,” he admitted. “I enjoyed the gigs but hated the rest. We felt disconnected, fucking spent. It happens. This has been our whole life; what else is there? Success has a funny effect on people. I just didn’t want to do it anymore, and I told them that.”

Drummer Philip Selway agreed that the time apart ultimately proved healthy. “When something like Radiohead takes up your entire adult life, you don’t realize how consuming it is until you stop,” he said. “The space allowed everyone to rediscover who they were outside of the band.”

The group’s reunion will take shape through a 2025 European tour. Yorke reportedly sent his bandmates a list of 65 potential songs to rehearse. “We’re all frantically learning them,” guitarist Jonny Greenwood said. “Then Thom will come in and say, ‘Let’s not do half.’”

Unlike other major reunion tours, Radiohead’s upcoming shows won’t rely on rigid setlists or nostalgia-driven staging. “We have too many songs,” Yorke said. “It’ll be different every night.”

The band also addressed ongoing criticism tied to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Greenwood, who lives part-time in Israel with his wife, artist Sharona Katan, has been accused by activists of “whitewashing” the Israeli government through association. Yorke said he’s been shouted at on the street by those demanding the band publicly distance themselves from Greenwood.

“A few times recently I’ve had ‘Free Palestine!’ shouted at me,” Yorke said. “But arguing on the pavement in London doesn’t solve anything. The true criminals, the ones who should be standing before the International Criminal Court, are laughing at us, arguing among ourselves while they carry on with impunity.”

Selway said the band has felt ostracized by parts of the artistic community. “What is asking of us is impossible,” he said. “They want us to distance ourselves from Jonny, but that would mean the end of the band. Jonny’s coming from a very principled place.”

Asked what comes next, the band offered little beyond the tour. Greenwood said they hadn’t planned beyond it, while Yorke summed up the group’s fragile optimism: “I’m just stunned we got this far.”