As U2 fans all across America dry their eyes after the Irish megaband just announced the cancellation of their big summer tour, there is one glimmer of hope in terms of seeing the show.
Today, the same day they were set to kick of the second leg of their 360 Tour until singer Bono ended up in the hospital for emergency back surgery, the rockers are releasing the last leg as a live DVD, U2 360 At The Rose Bowl.
UsMagazine.com caught up with Bono before he underwent surgery about his recent charity efforts — and how family is always there for him no matter what. Feel better, my man, and hope to see you back on the road — and fighting evildoers around the globe — again soon!
UsMagazine.com: Do you think you've really been able to affect change through your RED organization and all of your charity endavors?
Bono: People have come out. America has come out. People are realizing how easy it is to save a life. At a time when everyone is asking you to put your hand in your pocket and give money, RED doesn't do that. RED has asked companies like Apple to put out a RED iPod. Nike has red laces and LeBron James is wearing them. Loads of people are wearing them. If you buy a coffee at Starbucks and it's REDcoffee, they give some of the profits to buy pills for people who need them. Two pills a day and you're back at work in 40 days from death's door. It's just amazing. I want to plug the companies are doing incredible work. Giorgio Armani does incredible work. My glasses are RED glasses, well they're a kind of orange tint, OK, but they're RED in every other way!
Us: Who else musically has done good out there and inspired you?
Bono: When I was a young man and I was in a tiny little room in the north side of Dublin, I put on headphones and Bob Dylan would whisper all kinds of incendiary things into my ear. And I don't know what it was exactly, but the sense I got from his voice and his songs was that the world doesn't have to be the way the world is and that things could change. They don't have to stay the same. You give it a kick and it might move and we're here giving it a kick.
Us: How do you teach your kids that?
Bono: Oh, you know they're teaching me. My kids are kids are teaching me all the time. I have two girls (Jordan and Memphis Eve) who are both activists. They're a total pain in the ass. If you think I'm a pain in the ass, they're worse. They will not accept that the loss of life that we take as the way things are in these far off places when they know it's so simple to change things. We just have to really want to.
Us: And your wife is…
Bono: My wife is so gorgeous. [I was] going to miss her on the road!
By Ian Drew for UsMagazine.com. To read more of Ian's blog, click here and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
