Bono may be hanging up his guitar — for good. In honor of the New Year on Jan. 1, the U2 frontman penned a long, reflective blog post about 2014, in which he revealed he might never play the guitar again following his November bike accident and subsequent surgery.
"Recovery has been more difficult than I thought…As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again," he wrote in the post, an "A to Z" account of his year. "The band have reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this."
It's a loss nevertheless. "I personally would very much miss fingering the frets of my green Irish falcon or my (RED) Gretsch," he continued. "Just for the pleasure, aside from writing tunes. But then does the Edge, or Jimmy Page, or any guitarist you know have a titanium elbow, as I do now? I'm all elbows, I am."
As previously reported, the Irish rocker was injured while riding his bike in New York City's Central Park. He and the rest of U2 were scheduled to play a weeklong residency at The Tonight Show at the time, but they canceled to let Bono recover.
Recalling the accident in his blog post on Jan. 1, the 54-year-old said he "blanked out on impact" and is still a little fuzzy on the details. "[I] have no memory of how I ended up in New York Presbyterian with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket," he admitted. "Very punk rock as injuries go."
Joking aside, Bono said that "the consequences of this freak accident are significant enough" that he's planning to remain out of the spotlight for some time to come. "As a result I have cancelled every public appearance and decided this missive is all the communication I can manage for the first half of 2015," he wrote, "beyond muttering and singing to myself of course."
