Read Online Bono by Michka Assayas - Free Book Online

attention-seekers. And I’m sure I must be one of them. But I think I get enough of it in the work, to really not want it in my private life. But maybe not . . . because I’m finding myself, oops, by accident, talking to you for publication, shaking the hand of the odd president in front of the world’s media. I mean, what would your pocket book of psychology make of that? “Haven’t you got enough attention?” So if you find yourself in those situations a lot, you must want to be there. I probably want it both ways, but the emphasis must always be towards privacy. I just love the retreat of Dublin and Ireland. It has given me the best of both worlds, to go out and play at being a star, even though I don’t think I particularly look like one or act like one off the stage. But then, when I want my other life back, I get it in Dublin, Nice, and New York. I spend a lot of time in New York. People are really cool to me, even if they recognize me. Even the cops. New York’s finest, so many of them are Irish. And after what happened with 9/11 and U2’s support for the city, there’s a lot of affection. I really get looked after. Sometimes I’m hailing a cab, and a cop car will pull up: “Hey, Bono, we’ll take you anywhere you wanna go.” That’s the greatest.
    Are you implying that you saw a few of your peers getting out of touch?
    I’m just saying you don’t need all the accoutrements that a lot of my friends have.
    But why do they have to have them in the first place?
    I don’t know. I think it’s the status. It’s a very hierarchical business. What table you get in the restaurant tells how your career is doing. It’s happened to me many times, where you turn up at a restaurant or a club and they haven’t got the booking right and you have to queue or get turned away. The paparazzi are taking your photograph as they see you looking a little embarrassed and taking your guest by the hand and retreating. That could have been sorted out by security or an advance party calling ahead, but it’s not my style. So maybe there are good reasons, sometimes, for having an entourage. But I don’t want to stray too far from the street. I’m not saying I’m not good at the penthouse life—but I’m also good at the pavement. That’s a source of pride for me, that I’m good at both. I’m good at the high life, I’m good at the low life. It’s the middle where I lose it.
    So you don’t see yourself as a celebrity, then.
    No, I’m not a celebrity.
    Who the hell are you, then?
    I’m a scribbling, cigar-smoking, wine-drinking, Bible-reading band man. A show-off [laughs]  . . . who loves to paint pictures of what I can’t see. A husband, father, friend of the poor and sometimes the rich. An activist traveling salesman of ideas. Chess player, part-time rock star, opera singer, in the loudest folk group in the world. How’s that?
    Mmmh . . . I’ll let you off just this once.

3. EVERYBODY GETS OUT OF HERE ALIVE
    It took me some time to ask Bono about his closest friends: his fellow musicians in U2 and their manager, Paul McGuinness. I thought Bono and I had to get closer in order for him to talk about them, which he eventually did in a very revealing way. It was a Saturday afternoon in his study, and the mood was very relaxed.
    Have you heard the story about how Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met up for the first time? I guess they were about sixteen, waiting for a train to London. Richards actually approached Jagger because he had seen him walking with these ultra-rare records from the Chess catalog. Can you remember a similar encounter between you and Edge, something you’d refer to as the founding scene of your friendship, both personal and artistic?
    Which albums?
    Well, Edge was in Ali’s class at high school. They were a year behind me. I’d seen him