The Billie Eilish song that made Bono stop his car in shock
Bono has been fuelled by his passion for music for his entire life. Although many rock veterans of his status have lost that burning love which once propelled them to greatness, the U2 frontman is still blessed with the same intense affection for songs as he did as a teenager and can still find himself utterly inspired by new artists.
Discovering Billie Eilish was another important moment for Bono, and he’ll never forget where he was when he was first exposed to her 2019 song ‘Everything I Wanted’. Despite the 40-year age gap between him and the American singer-songwriter, her creation spoke to the Irish musician on a profound level, causing him to pull his car over to reflect on what he heard.
During the pandemic, Bono turned 60, and decided to put his free time to good use by chronicling his life through the 60 songs which have had the most significant impact on him. Although many selections on his list are from his youth or adolescence, such as The Beatles and the Sex Pistols, Bono also paid tribute to newer creations.
The extensive list examined his life-long love affair with music, which is still going strong today, and each selection came with an open letter addressed to the artist responsible for each song. When he appeared on the Today Show in 2021, he said of the list: “Yeah, the ‘Songs That Saved My Life’, not just a teenager but even now.”
Bono then looked back on the impact of David Bowie’s ‘Life On Mars’, before adding: “Adele I wrote about, Billie Eilish’s ‘Everything I Wanted’, when I heard that, I had to stop the car. I enjoyed putting that list together.”
When he published the list in 2020, Bono said to Eilish and her brother/collaborator Finneas of ‘Everything I Wanted’: “My ears long for such empty spaces to wander… to sneak away from the density of digital surfaces with too much information… I step inside your song and it’s a black beauty, achingly awesomely vulnerable and terrifying, fearless and worrisome… but you are not worried by all that.”
Bono concluded by writing: “You express it so you can own the feeling that nags. I think of Carole King, I think of Roy Orbison. But just like them, this never existed before you did.”
While Bono greatly admires Eilish, her knowledge of U2 is far from comprehensive. The singer is an obsessive fan of the US version of The Office, and due to a joke in an episode of the sitcom, she wrongly assumed they were from Scranton, Pennsylvania, until 2022.
While appearing on The Office Ladies podcast, Eilish revealed: “This last June, we were in Ireland. I’m in my hotel and I get flowers delivered to my room. It has a little letter on it and it’s this really, really sweet letter and it says ‘From Bono’. She then revealed the note said, ‘Welcome to my hometown’, which confused Eilish immensely.
The ‘Bad Guy’ singer added: “I was like, ‘Why would he send me something in Ireland? What does this have to do with him?’ [because] U2 is from Scranton. I kept asking everyone, ‘What is Bono doing sending me flowers all the way across the world? Why would he do that?’ They were like, ‘Billie, what are you talking about? They’re Irish.'”
Although Bono has been greatly affected by Eilish’s artistry, for her, his band are nothing more than a punchline to a joke in her favourite sitcom, which further illustrates the generational divide between them. Nevertheless, he is hugely grateful for the existence of her work, especially ‘Everything I Wanted’.
