U2 Singer Bono In Trouble After Death Threats

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U2 frontman Bono has had an illustrious 45-year long career. The band has not only garnered millions of fans, critical praise, and commercial success beyond belief, but they’ve also made their fair share of enemies. Bono recently revealed how the band dealt with several death threats.

Bono opens up on death threats

And we’re not talking merely about haters or online trolls, but real-life enemies that made the band fear for their lives, often due to the group’s outspoken political beliefs, best embodied in frontman Bono’s views.

The singer is preparing the release of his upcoming memoir “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story”, where he recalled some of the episodes that ended with members of U2 receiving death threats.

Bono made a powerful enemy out of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, with the musician saying:

“U2’s opposition to paramilitaries (of all kinds) had cost the IRA valuable fundraising in the US.”

The singer went on to add that special branch officers had to provide support to him and his wife Ali Stewart over the inpour of threats. “I still take that badly”, stated Bono regarding the fact that Stewart was labeled as a more likely target than him.

Bono added:

“A famous gangland leader in Dublin had been planning to kidnap [his daughters], that [the gangster’s] people had been casing our houses for several months and developed an elaborate plan.”

Later in the memoir, the singer also recalled U2’s tribute song to Martin Luther King, “Pride”, and how that got them in hot trouble at an Arizona concert.

Bono further claimed that the band received a death threat if they sang the lines in the tune pertaining King’s assassination. During the performance, Bono didn’t hesitate and sang the problematic verse:

“I then realized the gravity of the situation and I did close my eyes. It was a slim possibility but just in case. ‘I am still alive. Oh good’. And I looked up and I could not see the crowd because [bass player] Adam Clayton was standing in front of me and he had been there for the entire verse.”