In a rare solo performance since leaving the band, former REM frontman Michael Stipe took to the stage on The Tonight Show to deliver a beautiful cover of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World, Gigwise reports.

Now, complete with a thick beard after REM split in 2011, Stipe is set to perform at a Bowie tribute concert in New York this week - where he will sing as well as deliver a poem he penned in honour of the Thin White Duke following his death.

Ahead of the event, Stipe performed a beautiful, tender and piano-led cover of Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World' - exposing the bare bones and tenderness that lay at the heart of the track, Gigwise said.

Stipe will be performing alongside the likes of Blondie, Mumford & Sons, Patti Smith, Pixies, Cat Power, Debbie Harry and The Roots across two Bowie tribute shows at Carnegie Hall on Thursday 31 March and Friday 1 April, at two shows that will be streamed online.