Thursday, September 24, 2009

Bono loves Adam

For years, it seems Bono has been wanting to express full forgiveness/restoration/acceptance/amazing grace to Adam Clayton..

From Bono insisting on Adam as his best man at his wedding..just when Adam feared he'd get kicked out of the band for not (yet) being Christian..



...through the Elevation tour, when he often embraced..sometimes kissed Adam..during the "I want to go there with you); likely acknowledging/rejoicing in Adam's newfound faith.. Note how he runs towards, kisses, and loves on (as the father towards the prodigal son) the prodigal and prodigy bassman in 4:36-5:10 here:




...to little scenes like this, last night at Giants Stadium..2:06-2:26:




Of course, many have heard the amazing story of how Adam gladly risked his life for the Bonoman (anyone have video of this moment? As you can see, Bono isn't sure..or isn't revealing where it was):

There was a night in L.A. in the early part of the tour when we had a death threat that the police were taking very seriously indeed. Someone had sent the gun license into the U2 offices and they thought he had gotten into the venue. All of a sudden there were all these people on the stage which I really objected to. I never thought that sort of thing would bother me and, when I went out, it didn't. I just laughed it off, like The Blues Brothers - 'We're on a mission from God and we ain't finished yet.' The second night came up and the cops came up to us just before we were about to go on and said they'd made a mistake, He was coming tonight! "Now we get all kinds of racist jibes because we wrote a song for Martin Luther King, or pinko jibes because we did the Amnesty International Tour. Wherever you look we're a target for the loony fringe. So the second night, we're on stage and I'm singing 'Pride' thinking, 'If someone is going to do it, it will be during this number.' So I crouched down on the stage, shut my eyes and for a moment the thought of death crossed my mind. When I looked up I just saw Adam standing over me, between me and the crowd. It was a good, good moment."
--Bono "Bono In His Own Words"


Or:

1987. Somewhere in the south. We'd been campaigning for Dr. King, for his birthday to become a national holiday. In Arizona, they are saying no. We're campaigning very hard for Dr. King. Some people don't like it. Some people get very annoyed. Some people want to kill us. Some people are taken very seriously by the FBI. They tell the singer that he shouldn't play the gig because tonight his life is at risk, and he must not go on stage. And the singer laughs. Of course we're playing the gig. Of course we go onstage, and I'm singing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" -- the third verse -- and I close my eyes. And you know, I'm excited about meeting my maker, but maybe not tonight. I don't really want to meet my maker tonight. I close my eyes and when I look up I see Adam Clayton standing in front of me, holding his bass as only Adam Clayton can hold his bass. There are people in this room who'd tell you they'd take a bullet for you, but Adam Clayton would have taken a bullet for me.

I guess that's what its like to be in a truly great rock and roll band.

Hall of Fame Induction Speech


NME version:

"There was a guy who said if we played that song, that was it, he was gonna take us out. He got organised, he got in touch and said, 'Don't do it. If you do, we're got people there.' The FBI, or whoever, were taking it very seriously. I remember singing the tune, thinking, 'Oh, this is interesting.' But I was fine about it, no problem. Then after the show, Paul (McGuinness, manager) came backstage and said, 'Um, look, it's actually the second night he said he was going to do it.' So I had to do it all again, and not to be melodramatic about it, but I was a little freaked. I didn't even look at the crowd. And when it was finished and I looked up, I saw Adam was standing in front of me for the whole thing! I mean, Adam's so posh, right? He's not grown up with any sense of the street, but I have to say when it comes to digging me out of a few situations he's there."
-NME

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