Bono discusses why certain U2 songs leave him feeling “embarrassed”
It’s not unusual for actors to avoid watching their own films or for musicians to shy away from listening to their own music. Just as most of us cringe at the sound of our recorded voices or the memory of things we said and did in our younger years, many musicians share this same discomfort.
“I’ve been in a car when one of our songs has come on the radio, and I’ve been the colour of – as we say in Dublin – scarlet,” Bono told The Hollywood Reporter during an hour-long interview for the Awards Chatter podcast in 2022. “I’m just embarrassed. I do think U2 pushes out the boat on embarrassment quite a lot. And maybe that’s the place to be as an artist is right at the edge of your level of pain for embarrassment, your level of embarrassment,” the Irish singer added.
Bono pointed out, though, that it is not his band – who, in his words, “sound amazing” – that makes him cringe, but rather his own voice and his lyrics. While he singled out the 1995 duet with Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti (of all people) ‘Miss Sarajevo’ and the lead single from 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album ‘Vertigo’ as ones where he can listen to himself sing, he admitted that “most of the other ones make me cringe a little bit”.
His writing was not spared, either, as the frontman continued, “And the lyrics as well. I feel that on Boy and other albums, it was sketched out very unique and original material. But I don’t think I filled in the details.”
While he didn’t name-check his bizarre 1995 trip-hop cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, friendship with George W Bush, or the mathematical mishap in the opening lyrics to his favourite (of his own) song, ‘Vertigo’ (“Uno, dos, tres, catorce”, Spanish for “One, two, three, fourteen”) as further embarrassing moments, Bono did highlight the band’s name as another source of shame.
He wasn’t a fan of the moniker at first and had to be convinced to keep it by original manager Paul McGuinness, and he is still not a fan of it to this day, saying that “in our head, it was like the spy plane, U-boat. It was futuristic. It turned out to imply this kind of acquiescence — no, I don’t like that name. I still don’t really like the name”.
Bono may be embarrassed by his band name, his lyrics, and his voice, but he surely cannot be embarrassed by the accolades the group has collected over the years; the number of fans they have amassed, the number of records sold, or the money they have made over the course of their long career as a group.
Perhaps he is coming around on his voice, though, at least. In the interview, he stated: “I only became a singer, like, recently. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet for some people’s ears and I understand that”.
