(Credits: Far Out / MUBI)
Mon 16 March 2026 15:30, UK
The amount of brotherhood that goes into forming a band wasn’t lost on Bono.
He may have found salvation through singing his heart out onstage, but half the reason why U2 is still beloved to this day is because of how well every band member works off each other. And even if they have their ups and downs and disagree on which direction they should go in from one album to the next, Bono could always appreciate it when he saw that one of his bandmates was willing to lay down his life for him whenever they played onstage.
Then again, rock and roll was never meant to be an occupation that you risk your life for. There are many artists who have found themselves in hot water over the years, but some of the greatest musicians of all time can be fairly laid-back once they get over their years of partying. And since the Irish legends always looked out for each other, there was no way that any of them were going to find themselves losing the plot onstage after having a little too much to drink or sticking something up their nose.
But if there’s one thing that was dangerous to U2, it was Bono’s mouth. His speeches in between songs whenever they played live were bound to be a turn-off for some people, but that didn’t really matter to him. He saw it as his duty to use his platform for good, and while he is one of the most rambling frontmen of all time this side of Bruce Springsteen, there were bound to be a lot more enemies that he made when he started to work his own political ideologies into his music.
Everyone can get their feelings hurt whenever someone talks about religion or politics, and since Bono was fluent in both, things were going to take a dark turn in the post-War era. They weren’t willing to hold back from speaking their mind, and while the idea of the song ‘Pride’ being controversial feels incredibly stupid today, Bono remembered getting more than a few threats when the band played to make Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday a national holiday in the US.
You have to remember that that kind of racism doesn’t go away overnight, and while there were many people campaigning for the civil rights legend to become a historical figure, some citizens in the American South weren’t nearly as happy. A lot of people would have rather seen Bono’s head on a stick than watch him campaign for King, but even in the face of imminent danger, Bono was thankful to have someone like Adam Clayton on his side when they played their benefit shows.
As opposed to preaching from a pulpit, the best moment that Bono had onstage was seeing Clayton covering him as they played the song, saying, “I’m singing the third verse, and I’m excited about meeting my maker, but maybe not tonight. I close my eyes and I look up and see Adam Clayton, standing in front of me holding his bass like only Adam Clayton can hold his bass. There’s many people who say that they would take a bullet for you. Adam would have taken a bullet for me that night.”
Even though many people can gush about the bromance between the band members in that moment, that moment speaks to something much greater than taking a bullet. It was about U2 being able to speak their mind, and there wasn’t a single person on that stage who was willing to lay everything on the line to make sure that their voice was heard, even if it meant radical racists trying to extinguish them.
And the same could be said about the way that they are still turning their voices up in the modern age on the EP Day of Ashes. The world hasn’t become a utopia by any stretch, and even if Bono has to get back up on his soapbox a thousand more times, he is confident that his bandmates will always be there to catch him whenever he starts to fall back down to Earth.