'The sound of a drum kit in a room...'

31 Oct 2007
Get into a room with the band and 'everything is possible' explains Bono, in the 40th anniversary edition of Rolling Stone. 'Really and truly. It's this incredible thing. I treasure it. I treasure it now more than ever.'


Find the whole four page interview here including audio of Bono musing on a choice between 'U2 or activism'.

Great read, here's a couple of highlights:

Has your activism affected how you think about being in U2?
'I've spent a lot of time in these two-dimensional worlds - numbers, values, analysis of statistics. And when I get away from it, being with U2 is such a playground. It's made me realize how sacred music is. It's a kind of sacrament - like marriage, like friendship. I'm not sure the other three in the band know this, because they - maybe sensibly - have avoided that other world. They just think they're in U2, and that's great. But I really know how great it is to be in U2.'

Is it as great as what you dreamed it might be like when you were young?
'When I was a kid and I was at school, I worked at a gas station. And I would just get wound up thinking about practice on Saturdays - or Wednesdays sometimes. Just hearing the sound of a drum kit in a room, the silver of the ride cymbal and the skin of a tom-tom. It meant a great deal to me. Then, as it became my job to be in a band, you take for granted that you've got a few hours with your mates in the studio.
I don't anymore. It is sanctuary and escape from the material world of causalities, profit and loss, cynicism and hard-bitten victories over your own indifference or somebody else's. You get into this fucking room and everything seems possible, and I've never really appreciated it more than now. Really and truly. It's this incredible thing. I treasure it. I treasure it now more than ever. I'm terrified that I might lose my first love in the supermarket, in the maw of so many choices of what you can do with your time.
But I also think I'm better for having my brain pummeled in so many different areas.'

RECENT NEWS

28 Nov, 2025

In Ireland or the UK? Adam features in a new Sky Arts series Greatest Basslines, beginning tonight.

27 Nov, 2025

In North America? Tune in to U2 X-Radio on Sirius XM to catch Bono and Edge performing as U2 receive the 2025 Woody Guthrie Prize.

25 Nov, 2025

 Subscribers Special.
'It's not just my favourite U2 song, it's my favourite song.' Writer on TV's Slow Horses, Will Smith is a huge U2 fan. This is his all time playlist.

7
3 Nov, 2025

 Subscribers Special.
'You see everyone's mouth open and eyes go up, and they're just taking it in.' A U2 playlist from composer, producer and DJ, Pauli The PSM.

4