U2 frontman Bono posted a 6000+ word message on the band’s website Thursday detailing, among other subjects, his bike crash from November.
The message, entitled “LITTLE BOOK OF A BIG YEAR Bono’s A to Z of 2014” begin with a brief explanation of the bike crash and the following notation: |It’s January 1, 8pm. I nearly didn’t press go on this, and I am clearly delirious in places. It’s very personal, but I feel in a not corny way that U2 has a very intimate relationship with our audience… so I’m going for it.”
This is too long.
You should not have time to read this.
If you do get to the end of it then you are probably on the same painkillers as me.
For the last few weeks I haven’t been able to move around physically so I have more than made up for it by leaving my mind to wanderlust, untethered except electronically…
I have written words for new songs, but I have also had an opportunity to look back and review the year in a way I’ve never had time to do before… there have been more highs than lows, but perhaps the reason for this A TO Z endeavor is an attempt to learn from mistakes – the first of which is the discovery that I am not an armored vehicle. Edge says I look at my body as an inconvenience…The problem, as I see it, is that I think my head is harder than any other surface.On the day of my 50th birthday I received an injury because I was over indulging in exercise boxing and cycling, which was itself an overcompensation for overindulging on alcohol coming up to the big birthday. I promised myself I would be more mindful of my limits, but just four years on, it happened again – a massive injury I can’t blame on anyone but myself, mainly because I blanked out on impact and have no memory of how I ended up in New York Presbyterian with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket. Very punk rock as injuries go.
The consequences of this freak accident are significant enough that I will have to concentrate hard to be ready for the U2 tour in fitness terms… as a result I have cancelled every public appearance and decided this missive is all the communication I can manage for the first half of 2015, beyond muttering and singing to myself of course.
Later in the piece, Bono discusses his concerns regarding his recovery and future ability to play guitar:
I IS FOR IRISH PRIDEI broke my hand, my shoulder, my elbow and my face but the real injury this year was to my Irish pride as it was discovered that under my tracksuit I was wearing yellow and black Lycra cycling shorts. Yes, LYCRA. This is not very rock ‘n’ roll.
Recovery has been more difficult than I thought… As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this.
The Irish rocker also spoke of his admiration for Jimmy Kimmel, missing Nelson Mandela, and a variety of other subjects to include his glaucoma:
Completely unintentionally, in London in the autumn I confessed to the talk show host Graham Norton the reason that I wear tinted glasses is that I have been diagnosed as having glaucoma for the last seven years, but that I’ve probably had the disease as long as I’ve been wearing these kinds of glasses, which is 23 years!!!!I think it shocked him a little bit… it certainly surprised the band that I’d gone public, but maybe it is time to be honest about such things. I remember I had the nickname old red eyes. I remember the agony of flashbulb staying permanently in my vision for the rest of the day after I’d been photographed. I had many eye checks over the years but one of the sly things about this “silent thief” is that you can have 20/20 vision straight ahead for some years even after your peripheral vision goes… If it’s not treated, blindness results. I think anyone who reaches 40 should have their eyes properly checked.
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