{"id":491178,"date":"2026-06-09T19:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/491178\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T19:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:35:14","slug":"new-film-tells-story-behind-u2s-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/491178\/","title":{"rendered":"New film tells story behind U2’s Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new feature documentary is to tell the story of Andy ‘Guck’ Rowen, the Dublin man whose experiences helped inspire U2’s Bad.<\/p>\n

Bad: The Song That Saved My Life explores Rowen\u2019s life, from his childhood on Dublin\u2019s northside to his struggles with trauma and heroin addiction, and the friendship that connected him with Bono and other figures from Dublin\u2019s 1980s music scene.<\/p>\n

Rowen was 11 when he witnessed the 1974 Dublin bombings, an experience the documentary examines as part of a wider story about personal trauma, addiction, recovery and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

The film also looks at Rowen\u2019s connection with U2, including Bad, the epic track from the band\u2019s 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire<\/a>, which became a staple of the band’s live shows after it featured on their 1985 EP Wide Awake in America.<\/p>\n

The documentary follows Rowen as he reflects on a period in his life when he was without a home and struggling with addiction before being offered a place in a rehabilitation clinic in the United States.<\/p>\n

It also features a series of moments that helped shape his recovery, including an encounter with the handwritten lyrics of Bad and a tribute from Bono in front of a stadium audience.<\/p>\n

Bad: The Song That Saved My Life is told through interviews with Rowen, members of his family, the mother of his first two children, his daughter, and Bono.<\/p>\n

In the documentary, Rowen says: “The only thing I wanted to be when I was small, was good. Unfortunately, I found I couldn\u2019t be.”<\/p>\n

Bono says: “He probably had the highest IQ of any kid on our street, and sometimes it seemed he\u2019d memorised the Encyclopedia Britannica. He could remember turning two. He could remember a lot of things he would\u2019ve liked to have forgotten.”<\/p>\n

Bad: The Song That Saved My Life airs on Monday 15 June at 9.35pm on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player.<\/p>\n

Click here for more TV news and listings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new feature documentary is to tell the story of Andy ‘Guck’ Rowen, the Dublin man whose experiences…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":["post-491178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}