Bono claims he ended his friendship with Michael Hutchence because of drugs
U2 frontman Bono has claimed that he ended his friendship with the late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence because of his extensive drug use.
In his revealing new memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, Bono recalled how he and his wife, Ali, were close friends with Hutchence and his partner, presenter Paula Yates in the 1990s. Notably, Hutchence and Yates’ story ended tragically, with the INXS man dying by suicide in 1997 and Yates in 2000 from a heroin overdose.
Bono claimed that his and Ali’s friendship with Hutchence and Yates hit the rocks when the couple “spiralled down the vortex of a recreational drug use that had become hard work for everyone, especially their family, especially the younger ones” (per The Times).
He continued: “As their behaviour changed, our friendship became strained and we grew uncomfortable during their visits.”
Bono even claims that they were asked to be godparents by Yates, but he and Ali declined because they were “so wigged out” by the couple’s drug use, which ultimately forced them to end the friendship. “Neither of us dreamed they’d both end up dead so soon. Even now, I can’t believe I’ve just written that,” he said.
Elsewhere in his book, the U2 frontman discussed discovering that his cousin is also his half-brother, the death threats he’s received, and the 2014 controversy the band were embroiled in after their album Songs of Innocence was automatically downloaded onto the iTunes of 500 million users. To promote the book, Bono is currently on a 14-city book tour which kicked off in New York earlier this week.
Bono was also recently mentioned in the press when The Pogues frontman, Shane MacGowan, claimed that he used to expose himself to passing trains from Bono’s house in an attempt to prank the U2 man.
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