Authors: Michka Assayas,Michka Assayas
No. In the end, by the way, the World Summit wasn't so bad. In the end, Bush did commit to the Millennium Development goals, which was a first for him. The challenge for 2006 and into the future is to build a movement that forces politicians to keep their promises, and to do more. We deal on with my access at the moment. We've got others coming through now: Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, football players, hip-hop stars, NASCAR stars . . . Finally it's the movement that will stop the tin-cupping. The movement will give us real political muscle. Before this year, we were asking for one million people in the United States, by the end of
the year, to sign on to the One campaign to make poverty history. We have two million! Now, by 2008, by the next election, I am assured there will be five million Americans, which makes us bigger than the National Rifle Association. Now, the NRA, if you mess with them [
laughs
], they go after you.
On that note, Bono . . . Was there backlash from the people whose positions you are attacking? Did you get threats? Have people started lobbying against what you're doing in America?
Well, it's a very good question, but I think because we keep our position apolitical, we have been spared the direct hits from interest groups, be they on the left or on the right. I think we are seen as a nuisance in some quarters, but broadly a benign force.
But maybe it will be less benign if or when the budget swells. Some people might say you're diverting this money from poor Americans.
Exactly. And that's why we always insist that the money is new money. We do not want to be taking money away from other important programs, and that's crucial for us.
Adam [Clayton] was quoted as saying: “There's been a price in terms of relationships,” referring to your ongoing involvement with DATA's agenda during this tour.
I would like to spend much more time with Adam, but I think what he's referring to is relationships around the band, with the management and the music business, because it has been a very difficult year, going into the G8 and Live 8. There was very little sleep, there was a cost there. Coming out now, I've been spending a lot more time with the band. I'll tell you this. I am parched for time to spend writing and time spent with the band.
I mean every minute, every half an hour I spend with them is so much more appreciated now by me, because they are such dignified men, and I want to serve them. Nothing comes close to being in the room when magic of some new music occurs. Next year, I really want to just lose myself more in the music, and I will have to have a lower profile.
So Adam didn't mean that your hyperactivity created tensions within the band during this tour.
I think the shows never suffered. In fact, it brought an added electricity to the show. There's a wave of excitement for our band I don't remember.
Really? The Elevation Tour met with an amazing response in 2001.
Yeah, but it's getting more out of control, actually, in these last couple of months. We got to another level on the shows now, a whole new level of intimacy we never had. We've rearranged the set somewhat. There's an acoustic section toward the end, which is a very strange thing to do, but it's working very well. It's been an extraordinary tour.
Some people said, and among them longtime U2 supporters, that the Vertigo Tour has been a “Best of U2” tour.
This is just crap, and one of the most myopic comments I've heard. Well,
it is
the “Best of U2,” but there has never been a group in history that have played eight songs from their new album, sometimes five songs from their first album, which no one has heard. I think sometimes journalists don't look at the set list, or they see that there's certain songs in the set that are old stalwarts, or war horses from the past, and that's true. But ending with this acoustic section has been really very interesting because it suggests in the earlier part of the tour we might have been lacking some of that.
Some of your biggest fans who've been following you for the past twenty-five years, have said lately: Bono doesn't seem to lose himself in the music as much as he did before. Now, he's very professional, very much in control. It's a thing I've heard more than a few times.
You're just talking to people who are atrophied in their souls. I'm not!
What do you mean?
These are just grown-ups. Ask younger people who are coming to see us. I know how much I am involved in a song on a night. There's no question that this has been one of the most emotional rides of the tour. The singing is particularly emotional. These people really don't know what they're talking about. They know who they're talking about, but it's not me, it's them.
You mean they're seeing themselves in you.
Of course. They just put along themselves. You got lost in the music . . . You disappeared into it . . . These people, we see them every night. Usually, by the end of the night, they've escaped themselves out of that self-consciousness and they've come to this. But some people sit there with their arms crossed. They're just never gonna understand, because they have lost the ability to give themselves to music. People are looking for the obvious, the staging, and I absolutely accept that criticism. We have made these kind of very quick shifts in style of production over the years, and people would come along and go: “Oh, my God, what have they done now? They've a mirror ball spaceship on stage, they've a television station on the road!” Now, this time, we didn't pull one of those tricks. We broke rhyme. It's important to break rhyme occasionally. We stayed within this mold where the music was at the center. Now the emotional core is where the fireworks are going off.
A DVD from the current tour has just been released. It made me wonder: When you watch yourself perform, what do you see? I've often thought: Bono's the only one who's never attended a U2 show in his life. He's really missing out!
[
laughs
] I find it hard to watch myself.
So what do you see?
Emotional pornography. I just see the band doing it with the lights on. I find it hard to watch.
Do you feel awkward? Sorry for yourself?
There are moments when I see something I know, because I have an art director's eye. I'm involved with the directors of all these shows, the combining and the staging, so I know what goes into it, but it's like I was saying to you. What do you call a person who when he put the rabbit in the hat earlier is surprised when the rabbit comes out of it? A magician. So I am as surprised as anyone when it all comes off. I can look at the production, and I can feel the music, but I find it hard to watch myself getting lost in the music.
You seem to be very much in control of what you're doing now on stage.
I can't help but ask: Do you still get out of control from time to time?
Did you go off the rails at all this past year, on or off stage?
No, I didn't have time to go off the rails.
Yeah, you had more time to do that before.
I've had a lot to do. I have had some fun and ridiculous moments in the sun in the south of France and in Mexico. I've really enjoyed discovering
the country of Mexico. I've disappeared off the flight path at times in Mexico.
What have you done there?
I went to Guadalajara with my friend Guy Laliberté who kind of invented the Cirque du Soleil, and I really enjoyed time with those performers, jugglers. Just hanging out with somebody else's circus was nice. But just disappearing down the coast in Mexico, both on the West Coast and the East Coast, the Caribbean side, I have had great and wonderful moments underwater, with my kids and my mates. The pressure has not bent me out of shape, I don't think; it sort of beat me into shape. I think that it's a stronger person that leaves the tour than started the tour, though I will confess that, before I had just the last recent break, I was not as sharp as I would like. I could start to feel the wheels a little bit coming off the road. I did a press conference in Canada when I was there, trying to get Paul Martin to commit to 0.7%. I was starting the press conference, and there was a packed room, and really I was less than average. Complete charisma bypass . . . I kind of made a mental note: “I need to recharge the batteries.” But I did that in a few days. I'm feeling good now.
Nothing more serious than tiredness. You're a lucky man. I'm amazed.
I feel really good. Maybe it's your book, Michka! I've finished therapy, I've seen the other side of it. I'm a better man. I'm taking my place back in society . . .
I'm going to start a program for other stars now. I'll call it “Michka's therapy.”
John Lennon had his Janov “Primal Scream” therapy. My therapy is screaming AT Michka.
My method is quite simple. It's like “cop therapy,” if that's not a contradiction in terms. It seems to be working. By the way, do you remember how we ended our dialogue? I said to you: “Do you think that a few of the questions I've asked might turn into songs someday?” and you replied: “Mhh . . . Probably . . . they're nagging questions.” So, has it happened?
Well, I have begun a song inspired by the great Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges, and it's called “If I Could Live My Life Again.” So I think, Michka's therapy must be thanked for beginning such a song. Just because you were the first person that got me to turn my head around and look back.
It's a good thing that it doesn't happen every week.
No, I don't do that. So the song will be the memory of that.
You know I was recently surprised and honored to receive a note from Bill Clinton. He said: “Your book looks to be a wonderful portrait of one of my good friends.” Looking back, wouldn't you rather have touched up this portrait? Maybe there are some things that you regret having said, and other things that you regret NOT having said.
It's not my portrait to touch up. I've stood in front of you, I've sat in front of you, and I've lain in front of you. I think I've given you a lot of angles of my head. There is stuff, of course, I have kept back from myself, but mystery is something, as you know, I value, and I don't think sometimes it is a proper portrait to rob the subject of all mystery. All portraits, if they're any good, have one or two or three aspects. They cannot be of all aspects. Maybe the Cubists tried that, but if you wanna cross my head with a guitar and a chair, be my guest.
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Abu Ghraib,
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Abuse, creativity from,
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Accessibility of Bono,
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Achtung, Baby
(U2),
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“Acrobat” (U2),
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Adam (Adam Clayton, “Sparky”).
See also
U2
Bono relying on,
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“cool guy,”
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DATA involvement, impact on U2,
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death threats and,
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“difficult period” of,
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first impression of,
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landscape gardener,
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musical background of,
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,
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Paul McGuinness (manager) and,
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spirituality of,
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success and relaxing,
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Adams, Gerry,
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Addis Ababa,
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Ade, King Sunny,
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Advice for show business,
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Africa,
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See also
Debt, AIDS, and Trade for Africa (DATA); Humanitarian involvement
Aguilera, Christina,
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AIDS pandemic,
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See also
Debt, AIDS, and Trade for Africa (DATA); Humanitarian involvement
Airline food, childhood,
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Albarn, Damon,
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Alcohol,
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Alliances in politics,
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All That You Can't Leave Behind
(U2),
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“Amazing Grace,”
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America,
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ballad tradition of music,
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“colonization of the unconscious,”
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cross-dressing,
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Debt, AIDS, and Trade for Africa (DATA) and,
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dreams,
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Drop the Debt campaign,
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first time in (NY),
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fundamentalists,
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guns, pervasive in,
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Islamic world hatred of,
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Provisional IRA,
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September 11 terrorist attacks,
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televangelists,
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terror and poverty,
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United Ireland and,
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violent beginning of,
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Anderson, Fred,
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“Angel of Harlem” (U2),
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“Anybody Seen My Baby?” (Rolling Stones),
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Apocalypse Now
(film),
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Arendt, Hannah,
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Art, definition of,
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Assayas, Michka, champion of U2,
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Attention seekers, celebrities as,
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Audience
filming audience member, head to toe,
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girl's rescue at Live Aid concert (1985),
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perfect audience,
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performers becoming the,
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thinking people, audience as,
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Authority (weight) of U2,
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“Ave Maria” (Bono's lyrics for),
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“Baba O'Riley” (The Who),
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“Bad” (U2),
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Bad
(film),
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Ballad tradition of music,
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Barrett, Syd,
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Barrow, Robert J.,
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Basquiat, Jean-Michel,
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Beatles,
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“Beautiful Day” (U2),
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Belafonte, Harry,
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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
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Björk,
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Black Sabbath,
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Blackwell, Chris (producer),
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Black Wind, White Land
(A. Hewson),
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Bolan, Marc,
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Bono.
See also
America; Businessman; Celebrity myth; Central America; Childhood; Death; Eternity (religion); Friends; Hewson, Ali (Bono's wife); Hewson, Bob (Bono's father); Humanitarian involvement; Introspection; McGuinness, Paul (manager); Memoir; Politics; Survival of U2; U2
accessibility of,
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birthday as Irish holiday,
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“Bongelese,”
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car driving by,
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death threats,
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Doctor in Laws at Trinity College,
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“drinks outing,”
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ego,
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Elijah (son),
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faith of,
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fatherhood,
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filming audience member, head to toe,
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first child's birth and,
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first impression of,
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first time in Africa,
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first time in America (N Y),
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friendship and love,
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girl's rescue at Live Aid concert (1985),
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instinct over intellect,
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insurance salesman, Bono as,
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Irish music ancestry,
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Irish vs. English people,
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Jordan (daughter),
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justice over charity,
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Killiney house,
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Knight of the Legion of Honour,
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looking back perspective,
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map from home to school,
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marriage and monogamy,
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Mexico for recharging batteries,
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mother, loss of,
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Peter and the Wolf
illustrated by,
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reinventing themselves, rock performers,
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self-love/self-loathing,
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self-portrayal by,
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sheep image of mankind,
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smirk,
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songs, favorite,
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songwriting by accident,
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suburbia, violence of,
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traveling salesman, Bono as,
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trust,
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truth, discovery of,
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unconscious, ideas from,
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zealot attitude,
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Book of Kells,
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Boomtown Rats,
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Borges, Jorge Luis,
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Bowie, David,
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Bravery of youth,
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Brezhnev, Leonid,
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Behan, Brendan,
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Brocquy, Louis Le,
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Brother and Bono,
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Brown, Gordon,
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Brown, James,
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“Bullet the Blue Sky” (U2),
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Bunnymen,
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Bureaucracy,
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Bush, George W.,
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Businessman,
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density, in charge of own,
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downloading music,
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Edun (clothing company),
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Elevation Partners,
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faith vs. luck,
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“four respects” of company,
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gambling,
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mistakes,
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music business, future of,
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music-business world,
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Nude (fast-food chain),
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obstacles,
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ownership of songs, copyrights, master tapes,
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property developer,
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real estate investments,
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rock band vs.,
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strategy, thrill from,
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telephony phenomenon,
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video games,
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Business vs. show business,
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Campbell, Naomi,
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CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) of Europe,
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Cardenal, Ernesto,
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Carmody, Simon,
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Carradine, David,
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Castro, Fidel,
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Cautiousness of Larry Mullen,
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Celebrity myth,
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art, definition of,
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attention seekers, celebrities as,
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contradictions of performing,
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cult figure, Bono as,
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entourage,
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envy and desire, chasm between,
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eternity (religion) and,
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flea market,
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gospel tradition,
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humanitarian involvement and,
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,
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hunger,
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ideas for music, origins of,
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insincerity for protection,
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melodies, origins of,
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paparazzi,
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power,
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privacy,
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rock-star life,
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rock stars, working at becoming,
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,
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role models from Dublin,
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self-portrayal by Bono,
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status,
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success,
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super models and U2,
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words for music, origins of,
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,
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Céline, Louis-Ferdinand,
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Central America,
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