opened his book tour Wednesday night in what he called a BԪַtransgressiveBԪַ mood, a little bit guilty for appearing on stage with three musicians who were not his fellow members of U2 and otherwise singing, joking and shouting out his life story to thousands of adoring fans at ManhattanBԪַs Beacon Theatre.
He even performed one song in Italian, a flawlessly operatic take of BԪַTorna a Surriento.BԪַ
BԪַThis is all a little surreal,BԪַ he noted at one point. BԪַBut it seems to be going well.BԪַ
The 62-year-old singer, songwriter and humanitarian described himself as an eternal boy (born Paul David Hewson) with his fists BԪַin the air,BԪַ a BԪַgrandstandingBԪַ rock star and a baritone trying to be a tenor. He is now a published and best-selling author, his out this week and already in the top 10 on Amazon.com.
Through BԪַSunday Bloody Sunday,BԪַ BԪַWhere the Streets Have No NameBԪַ and other U2 classics, he traces his biography from his stifling childhood home in Dublin and the grief over the early death of his mother Iris Hewson to the formation of the band that made him a global celebrity and his enduring marriage to Alison Stewart.
, and were among his famous admirers in the audience, which often stood and cheered and sang along. For the 90-minute plus BԪַStories of SurrenderBԪַ show, billed as BԪַan evening of words, music, and some mischief,BԪַ Bono wore a plain black blazer, matching pants and added color with his orange-tinted glasses. He opened with an account from his book of his heart surgery in 2016, but otherwise pranced and leapt like a man who had never seen the inside of a hospital and belted out songs written decades ago without any sense he had forgotten what inspired them.
Ticket prices for the sold out show reached rock star levels as some web sites offered scalped seats for $2,000 and higher. Compared to a U2 show, the setting was relatively intimate BԪַ handwritten illustrations on screens hanging toward the back of the stage and a few tables and chairs that Bono used as props to climb on or to simulate conversations. With warm and comic mimicry, he recalled phone calls with and his pleas of BԪַBono, Bono, BonoBԪַ as the opera star recruited him to perform at a benefit show in Modena, Italy, and once turned up at U2BԪַs studio on short notice BԪַ with a film crew.
Bono also re-enacted his many tense bar room meetings with his father, who seemed to regard his sonBԪַs career as some kind of failed business venture. Brendan Robert HewsonBԪַs rough facade did collapse once, unexpectedly BԪַ when he met , an encounter Bono described as like watching centuries of Irish loathing of the royals BԪַgone in eight seconds.BԪַ
BԪַOne princess, and weBԪַre even,BԪַ Bono added.
He spoke often of loss, of his mother when he was a teenager and of his father in 2001. But he also described his life as a story of presence, whether of his religious faith, his wife and children, or of his bandmates. After what he called the characteristic Irish response to a childBԪַs outsized ambitions BԪַ to pretend they donBԪַt exist BԪַ he called himself BԪַblessed,BԪַ and added that BԪַwhat was silence has been filled, mostly, with music.BԪַ
BԪַHillel Italie, The Associated Press