Bono has claimed U2 split up “all the time”.
The 62-year-old singer admitted being in a band is “tricky” and sometimes rows between the members of the group, which also includes The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr., can be so explosive, they decide to go their separate ways, but ultimately they always settle their differences and “get back together”.
Speaking on the ‘SmartLess’ podcast, Bono said: “I’m amazed we’re still going.
“Being in a band is tricky.
“The older you get, it gets even trickier.
“Because when you grow up together, you’re used to taking bits out of each other.
“You’re as good as the arguments you get, but at a certain point, when people are doing well, the male loves to be the lord of his own domain, you know? It’s rough.
“And you can just imagine why people say, ‘Ah, f*** this, I’m outta here.’
“I mean, I really genuinely expect that and the band breaks up all the time. It’s the truth.
“Then we get back together and I’m grateful we do.”
Despite their tensions, the ‘One’ rockers – who formed in 1976 – recently announced they will release ‘Songs of Surrender’, a 40-track album of re-imagined and re-recorded songs on 17 March.
They wrote on their official Twitter account: “Songs Of Surrender. 40 Songs. Reimagined and rerecorded. March 17, 2023. #U2SOS40”
It comes after U2’s guitarist The Edge teased a new project in letters to fans, admitting the band are heading in a “new direction”.
He wrote in part: “The fact is that most of our work was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men. Those songs mean something quite different to us now. Some have grown with us. Some we have outgrown. But we have not lost sight of what propelled us to write those songs in the first place. The essence of those songs is still in us, but how to reconnect with that essence when we have moved on, and grown so much?
“Music allows you to time travel and so we started to imagine what it would be like to bring these songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit or otherwise, of a 21st century re-imagining. What started as an experiment quickly became a personal obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation.
“Intimacy replaced post-punk urgency. New keys. New chords. New tempos and new lyrics arrived. It turns out that great song is kind of indestructible. Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version each song started to open up to a new authentic voice of this time, of the people we are, and particularly the singer Bono has become.
“I hope you like our new direction.”
The track list is yet to be confirmed, but some fans have speculated that it could be the same as the songs in Bono’s memoir, which told the stories of 40 songs from U2’s back catalogue.