Thom Yorke tells 6 Music he paid nothing for In Rainbows

Thom Yorke paid nothing for the In Rainbows download. Paying, he told Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music, would only have moved his money from one pocket to the other. The interview, with Yorke and Ed O'Brien, aired on Monday 19 November, and 6 Music bills it as the band's first on radio since the album came out on 10 October.

The idea of a download came from the band's management, Yorke says, who did not want to put out an album while Radiohead had no record contract. Letting buyers name their price was not meant to make a point. I still wanted to do it on The Eraser, but it was too difficult³, he says. Every Radiohead record for years had leaked, so why not just leak the bloody thing yourself, why let someone else nick it and get it wrong and get the wrong version³.

O'Brien says the 2008 tour is at an early stage, with none of it confirmed. The band will probably go out in May, America first, and be around Britain in June and July. Asked about Glastonbury, O'Brien says everything is on the agenda if the festival wants them.

Yorke says the recording was kept secret from start to finish. We weren't allowed to have copies in the house, we had to destroy all copies, none in cars³. O'Brien kept the release plan just as close. We had to literally tell no one. I didn't tell my wife we were going to release it like this.¹