When Robert Redford got pissed with U2: “This is my kind of man”
What do you get when you cross Robert Redford, U2, and a drunken interview in the backseat of a travelling SUV? Sundance Film Festival history, that’s what!
This tale of soused Irish musicians and the legendary Hollywood star who got them all liquored up took place in January 2008, when Sundance’s opening weekend was headlined by U2’s pioneering concert film U2 3D. A journalist from USA Today was supposed to interview Bono and The Edge before the premiere, but then they got a better offer. A much better offer, in fact.
To the band’s delight, Redford invited them to the Sundance Mountain Resort to have a drink with him at the Owl Bar, which was constructed from the refurbished remains of the Rosewood Bar from late 19th-century Wyoming. That infamous tavern was where the real Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid used to get drunk and plan their heists, and Redford saw it as the perfect tribute to the character that made him famous – and gave his film festival its moniker.
Naturally, Bono and The Edge jumped at the chance to have a few bevvies with the Sundance Kid himself, although the intrepid journalist miraculously got them to agree to being interviewed later that night. In the back of their car. On the way to the premiere. After drinking whiskey with Redford for a couple of hours. Was it a messy chat? Yes. But was it better than any interview they would have given sober? Definitely.
When the two rockers came stumbling out of Redford’s watering hole, the iconic star subtly guided them over the snowy terrain while fans and onlookers screamed, took pictures, and shot video of their idols. A smiling Redford saw them safely to their SUV, then said goodbye and walked back to the bar. To the interviewer’s eyes, it looked like the All the President’s Men star was holding his booze a lot better than the Irishmen, which is a turn up for the books.
Amusingly, when the driver joked that he was under “strict instructions not to let you stop at a bar” on the way to the premiere, Bono lazily waved him off and said, “Uh, well, we just had a little Bushmills at the, uh…” After his explanation trailed off into nothingness, though, the journalist must have wondered if Utah’s notoriously high altitude was messing with the hardened rock star’s usual drinking skills. Whatever the case, though, both he and his longtime guitarist were suitably well-oiled.
In the end, the guts of the interview involved Bono and The Edge tipsily waxing lyrical like excited schoolboys about throwing back shots with Redford, who told them the Rosewood Bar back was originally built in Ireland, before Cassidy bought and shipped it to Wyoming to be rebuilt. “It’s probably one of the first Irish bars ever exported out of Ireland,” The Edge claimed, before claiming that Cassidy’s outlaw gang had more than 500 members and “a lot of money”. Whether or not any of this is strictly true is neither here nor there; the important part is that it could be true, and the story was told to them by Robert freakin’ Redford.
“I’ll tell you, fair play to Bob,” Bono lightly slurred, before marvelling at Redford’s down-to-earth attitude to getting drunk in the middle of the afternoon. He remembered saying, “In America, it’s kind of against the law, you know, to drink during the day,” to which the star gave a deadpan, “Yeah,” and then mimed taking an exaggerated shot. At that point, the legendary singer knew, “This is my kind of man.”
