Bono says every U2 member has “thought about walking away” from the band

Written by on 13/03/2023

Bono. Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

U2 frontman Bono has revealed that at some point throughout their career, every member of the band had “thought about walking away”.

  • READ MORE: Bono live in London: U2 frontman brings his memoir to life with songs and fascinating stories

Speaking on the band’s upcoming Disney+ documentary A Kind Of Homecoming, Bono shared candidly that he had “certainly” entertained the idea of leaving the band, per a Daily Mail report.

“I have certainly thought about walking away from U2, every member has. We have all thought about it,” he said, adding that thinking about leaving was “the right instinct to question whether this should still be going and what it demands of all four members.”

Bono would go on to say that he’s stayed due to “the desire to write songs we don’t have yet. We are chasing the dragon of the song we can’t get.”

Daily Mail reports that Bono further reflected on how he had “tested the patience” of his bandmates: “Friendship is deeply part of who we are, but you could lose that along the way. We had to work on it. If you are in a rock and roll band, you don’t want to be in the photograph with some people who might have polarising opposite values you hold dear, and I did that to them.”

“I am turning what we created as a band into currency that I chose to spend in these areas. By and large they support me, but I do know I test their patience.”

Elsewhere in the documentary, guitarist The Edge added: “The fact we are still together is a remarkable thing. We kind of grew up together and learnt how to be people of the world via the band. We are probably a little institutionalised by being in this thing a little too long. There are many times in the past I think we were pushing our look a little too far. It was hard for us. There was a lot of tension.”

Earlier this month, The Edge shared his thoughts on the future of the band as drummer Larry Mullen Jr sits out of the band’s upcoming Las Vegas residency due to surgery and will be replaced temporarily by Bram van den Berg.

Journalist Neil McCormick shared quotes that didn’t make it into his article with the guitarist, where the latter said: “So every time I think of quitting, I kind of reinvent U2. We all know that we shine brighter by being in proximity to each other. That’s why it’s going to be very difficult to break up U2 – simply because it works so well for us all.”

The post Bono says every U2 member has “thought about walking away” from the band appeared first on NME.


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