Bono's Prologue from U2 by U2:
Sometimes it comes across as if I got into U2 to save the world. I got into U2 to save myself. I meet people out on the street who approach me like I’m Mahatma Gandhi.
And when someone says, “Hail, man of peace,�?I can hear Larry laughing under his breath: “You’re lucky he didn’t nut you.�?The band are very bemused by my attraction to non-violence, because they know you couldn’t get further from the songs than the singer. They understand the reason I have been so attracted to these characters, the subjects of my songs �?because in life and temperament I am so far from them. There is a rage in me, and it is not all injustice. I have developed good manners to disguise it.
I am better at it now, but it used to be difficult to talk to me after a show, because I would be very hyped up for a bout an hour, and, if the show hadn’t gone well, I would feel cheated and raw. Backstage at a U2 concert, it’s more like a dressing room after a boxing or soccer match than a rock gig. You have to remember, for U2 every night has to be the best night. And if it isn’t there has to be a reason. We have very high standards and we always remember who pays our wages. Our audience deserves the best possible set of songs, not just running through some jukebox to keep ourselves amused. I can feel if the crowd are losing interest and I might throw a firecracker into that part of the crowd, and the firecracker would probably be me. Light the fuse, see what happens.
To sing those songs, to hit those high notes, takes an incredible concentration ad commitment. You have to step inside and live the songs. So your right in the middle of Derry singing ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday�? or you are in Memphis at a civil rights rally with dr. king, singing ‘Pride in the Name of Love�? I’m right up there. Your mate is ruining his life with a bag of smack. It’s ‘Bad�? You’re in those emotions. And I think the band have been very good about realizing that I get to that spot. And at times it must have been very difficult for them, because the singer would be right out there.
Your nature is a very hard thing to change; it takes time. One of the extraordinary transferences that happen in your spiritual life is not that your character flaws go away, but that they start to work for you. A negative becomes a positive: you’ve a big mouth: you end up a singer. You’re insecure: you end up a performer who needs applause. I have heard of people having life-changing, miraculous turn-arounds, people set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties ‘let go, and let God�? But it was not like that for me. For all that “I was lost, I am found�? it is probably more accurate to say, “I was really lost, I am a little less so at the moment.�?And then a little less and a little less again. That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting of a computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet.
Buy U2 by U2!
(Suggestion: right click on link and select "open in new window")
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
