The band Bono said The Edge should have joined
Most bands aren’t capable of having the same kind of tight unit that U2 had at their peak.
As much as the band have been known for being either transcendent or insufferable depending on which album you catch them on, there’s no doubt that those four friends who started it all back in Ireland were always looking out for each other whenever a song was counted in. But even in a band that close, Bono knew that there was a lot more room for every one of them to stretch out a little bit.
Then again, it’s not like any of them were looking to branch out into a solo career, either. Bono already had the biggest stages that he could have ever wanted when playing The Joshua Tree tour, and even when he had his moments working alongside Frank Sinatra, everyone understood that it was practically a side mission in between working on whatever new experiment they had in the pipeline.
Because, really, without Bono, the entire band would have fallen apart. He was the almighty preacher behind those songs, and while he could be incredibly long-winded, you could tell that his heart was always in it when he played those tunes. If he was the heart, though, The Edge was the brains of the entire organisation whenever looking at those layers of guitar parts he put on every single song.
He was a sonic wizard in many respects, and for all of the intense fights the band could have in the early days, they knew there was no point in trying to question what the guitarist was doing. He was slowly crafting a masterpiece on every single tune, but there were bound to be times when he got fed up. I’m not sure anyone could be in a band with Bono and not get frustrated at least once, and even the frontman figured that The Edge could be used better in other groups.
While his sound was perfect for U2 from the minute he started playing, Bono felt that maybe his higher calling would be working behind the scenes for a band like Metallica, saying, “If you think he’s loud now, wait ‘til we’ve been on the road a few months. He’s having his amps put up to ‘12’ because ‘11’ isn’t loud enough anymore. I often think Edge would’ve been happier if he was in Metallica. The only trouble is the hair – or rather lack of.” Hair may not have been that much of a priority in Metallica, but it’s not exactly the best fit, either.
There are definitely Metallica songs that have a greater size and scope to them, but chances are The Edge would need to work on his rhythmic chops. Even for someone who plays in lock step with Larry Mullen Jr on every tune, James Hetfield was a completely different animal when he played, and getting any guitarist to play with that tight of a forearm was going to be a definite workout to master.
But it’s not like the door wasn’t open a little bit, either. There were U2-sounding guitars scattered in the background of songs like ‘Sad But True’, and since Lars Ulrich was the most musically diverse person in the band, it would have been an interesting experiment to see them working together during the Load era of the group, even if doing so would piss off more fans than that album already did.
Given the fact that The Edge was a massive fan of punk, though, who’s to say whether or not he could add something to a Metallica song if given the opportunity? He was on the opposite side of the musical spectrum in a sense, but sometimes it’s those unorthodox pairings that get the best results. After all, no one knew what Bono and ‘Ol Blue Eyes’ would sound like together, so getting The Edge to dirty up his guitar sound could be a bold new direction.
