“Many faces and facets”: Bono discusses the greatest frontman he ever witnessed
Being the frontman of any rock and roll group is no tall order. Even though the job description of singing songs all night and playing up to the image of a rock god seems like a decent enough gig, having to keep one’s self intact and manage to get some human connection out of the audience is hardly a walk in the park for any seasoned veterans of the genre. Despite Bono having a reputation for being both the best and worst frontman of all time in many people’s eyes, the man himself holds one artist above all others.
Looking back on how Bono constructed many of his greatest performances, though, it was never at the expense of him being a rock and roll. There are still some U2 fans out there who might think that Bono is the next coming of the Messiah, but he is more interested in crafting songs that have the audience as the secondary instrument of the band half the time.
And it’s not like he can’t pull off having fantastic moments onstage. His way of working the crowd at Live Aid is enough to give Queen a run for their money at the same gig, and despite being one of the most pretentious rockumentaries ever put to film, the moments where Rattle and Hum works is when Bono takes the bull by the horns onstage, whether that’s him doing a call and response with the crowd or talking about having enough of Irish Americans.
But that’s not the goal of any great rock and roll band. Everyone usually wants to have the opportunity to give the audience a good time, and that was the kind of energy that Mick Jagger exuded from every part of his body. While The Rolling Stones may not have started off as the most original band in the world, no one was going to replicate what Jagger did when he strutted across the stage or when he walked for miles on end in stadiums.
Although U2 eventually graduated to that stadium level of rock and roll, there was something still keeping Bono at arm’s length from The Stones. Despite Jagger having the moves that most people would have killed for, Bono was more interested in taking music to another place rather than giving the audience the kind of music that they love at the moment but forget about an hour after they’ve listened to it.
Still, Bono had to admit that Jagger was the epitome of what a frontman should be, even if it wasn’t what he envisioned for himself, saying, “Though Mick Jagger was the greatest frontman ever, we wanted to be The Beatles more than we wanted to be The Stones. The Rolling Stones have had many faces and facets over 60 years. [Their] songs have endless dimension, but mostly, they work with a similar palette of sounds.”
Granted, that palette of sounds hasn’t lost its lustre over the years, either. Keith Richards is still one of the reigning kings of the riff, and even if the band have slowed down their typical releases over the years, the fact that their live shows still sound fairly decent is a testament to how well Jagger and Richards have been working at their craft.
Because when you think about it, no frontman is meant to become one of the best performers in the world on a whim. Whether that’s Bono, Jagger, or Paul McCartney, being a natural-born entertainer is something that’s in the bones long before they even stepped onto the stage.
