“How embarrassing our songs”

U2 songs are embarrassing. And the band name is also no good. The author of the rejection – negligible detail – is Bono, frontman of the famous group. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter’s podcast Awards Chatter, 61-year-old Paul David Hewson revealed that many of U2’s songs make him “shudder” with embarrassment and even the name of the band, made up of schoolmates from Dublin, who has sold more than 150 million albums in his 40-year career.

Although he agrees that his band “sounds fantastic”, Bono has stated that he doesn’t like the sound of his own voice at all, except on ‘Vertigo’, the opening track of the album ‘How to Dismantle. an Atomic Bomb ‘. “Most of the others make me cringe a little,” he said, explaining that he found his voice “very tense”. “I became a singer only recently,” added Bono.

“I was in the car when a song of ours played on a radio. I went purple, I was embarrassed. I think U2 is very embarrassing,” said Bono, who extended the unflattering judgment “to the lyrics as well.” And the name? The group was originally supposed to be called The Hype, but the hypothesis was rejected due to lack of originality. Designer Steve Averill proposed a shortlist of names. “Of the suggestions, it’s not that U2 turned out to be what we were really looking for. It was the one we hated the least,” explained guitarist The Edge, also a guest on the podcast. “We chose him, without really loving him in the beginning,” he added. “I don’t even love him today,” Bono urged. The name should have made us think of something “futuristic”, between a “spy plane” and “U-boats”. Instead it was welcomed as a banal “ you too ” (with the pronunciation reminiscent of You too). “No, I do not like it”.

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