Hindu Love Gods was an American rock band comprised of Warren Zevon and R.E.M. members: Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills. The band formed as a side project in 1984 as a reprise from their respective careers, where they performed some gigs together and recorded covers. The band’s initial lineup also included Bryan Cook on keyboards.

Berry, Buck, and Mills heavily contributed to Zevon’s August 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene, an album that was finished ahead of schedule. Putting the extra studio time to use, Hindu Love Gods recorded their eponymous album, comprised of covers, which was released in October 1990 and peaked at #168 on the Billboard 200 chart. Zevon revealed in an interview with Goldmine that the album was recorded in a single day in a “jam session” reportedly after some “heavy drinking.”

Speaking to The Los Angeles Times in November 1990, Zevon revealed:

I’ve known those guys for years. My manager for eight years, Andrew Slater, met Peter Buck when they were both in school at Emory University in Georgia. Anyway, the ‘Hindu Love Gods’ thing was just this spontaneous, unplanned thing. And for whatever reason, it’s selling surprisingly well. Sentimental Hygiene did OK, while the next one, Transverse City, was on the other side of OK. As a trio, we’ll do some ‘Hindu Love Gods’ stuff, but mostly my songs.

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