CHAPTER 10

A Voice for Everyone

By 2005, music was changing. When U2 started out, people bought vinyl records and cassette tapes. Now music was digital, stored in computer memory. Bono saw this was the way of the future. He made a deal with Steve Jobs, the cofounder of Apple, to sell all of U2’s music in the digital music store called iTunes. At that time, if you opened up iTunes on your computer, the section marked “Artists” showed the shadow of a man singing at a microphone. That was the iTunes symbol for all the recording artists you could find on iTunes. It was also a picture of Bono. Steve Jobs had decided to let Bono represent a part of the iTunes brand when they’d first started working together.

Steve Jobs (1955–2011)

Steve Jobs grew up in California and was fascinated by machines.

On April 1, 1976, Steve, who was just twenty-one years old, and his friend Steve Wozniak, started a company they called Apple Computer in Steve’s parents’ garage. Under Steve’s leadership, Apple would go on to become the most successful computer company in the world, introducing such products as the Macintosh computer, the iMac, the MacBook, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.

In 2005, U2 came to the United States to perform at a concert to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Lake Pontchartrain had flooded the streets of New Orleans. Homes were destroyed. People were stranded for days waiting for someone to rescue them. Bono sang the song “One”:

One life with each other: sisters, brothers . . .

We get to carry each other . . .

The lyrics were meant to rally people to stand together and to help one another.

In 2007, Bono got a very surprising honor. He was knighted in recognition of his service and his humanitarian work.

In 2009, when Barack Obama was sworn in as president, U2 performed at his inauguration. The concert took place on the same steps where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. U2 performed “Pride (In the Name of Love),” dedicated to Dr. King.

Bono was getting used to talking to the most powerful people in the world. He wanted to speak for poor people everywhere who would never get the chance to meet with a president or a queen. When the NAACP gave him a special award for his humanitarian work, he said, “God, my friends, is with the poor. And God is with us, if we are with them.”

Bono and the Edge now had their eye on a different stage. They wrote the music for a Broadway musical called Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. The show was based on Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man character. It featured a lot of complicated stunts. The actors sometimes flew around the stage on ropes and “webs” and performed fight scenes. Unfortunately, the stunts were dangerous and several actors were hurt. Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was the most expensive Broadway production in history!

Spider-Man was performed in New York City, so Bono and Ali moved there with their sons to work on it. Their daughters, Jordan and Eve, already lived in New York. Jordan went to Columbia University and Eve went to New York University. Bono and Ali missed the girls so much, they were happy to be in the city with them. After the show was over, the whole family stayed in New York.

Spider-Man ended in 2014. By then, Jordan and Eve were twenty-five and twenty-three years old. Their brothers were now fifteen and thirteen. One day that year, Bono was riding his bike in Central Park when he swerved to keep from hitting someone else. He fell down. He was seriously injured, especially on his face, arm, and hand. But a few months later, Bono appeared on TV to show everyone he was okay.

Bono enjoyed his life with his family in New York. But he still traveled around the world with U2. On November 14 and 15, 2015, the band was scheduled to play in Paris, France. But the shows were canceled when there was a terrorist attack. Some of the people who lost their lives had been at a rock concert.

Bono and U2 on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

Bono wrote a special song as a tribute to the city, which he and the band performed a few weeks later at a special concert. The song was a celebration of the city’s spirit, which would never be broken.

As always, he wanted to give a voice to people who couldn’t be heard. When Bono first dreamed of being a rock star, he imagined himself as the center of attention. But when he reached center stage, he saw a world full of people who needed attention more than he did.

And that is Bono’s legacy: He continues to be the rock star who wants to shine brighter. For Bono, “Music can change the world because it can change people.”