Singer Bono still hasn’t found what he is looking for when it comes to his 46-year-old band’s name.
Not only does he dislike “U2”, he also cringes at most of their songs and switches off the radio when they come on.
He said the band’s guitarist the Edge also was not keen on “U2” at first.
Bono, 61, said: “I still don’t. I really don’t. In our head it was like the spy plane, U-boat, it was futuristic.
“Paul McGuinness, our first manager did say ‘look, it’s a great name, it’s going to look good on a T-shirt, a letter and a number’.”
U2 have gone on to become one of the world’s best-selling bands, yet Bono told Awards Chatter podcast he cannot listen to his voice on the early albums because he’s only recently, possibly, been able to sing.
When asked which U2 song he was proudest of, he said: “The one that I can listen to the most is Miss Sarajevo with Luciano Pavarotti. Genuine, most of the other ones make me cringe a little bit. Although Vertigo probably is the one I’m proudest of. It’s the way it connects with the crowd.
“I’ve been in the car when one has come on the radio and I’ve been the colour of, as we say in Dublin, scarlet. I’m just so embarrassed.”
“It’s the voice. The band sound incredible, though I just find the voice very strained and kind of not macho. The big discovery for me was listening to the Ramones and hearing the beautiful sound of Joey Ramone and realising I didn’t have to be that rock ’n’ roll singer.
“I only became a singer like recently – maybe it hasn’t happened yet for some people’s ears.
“I do think U2 pushes out the boat on embarrassment quite a lot and maybe that’s the place to be as an artist – you know right at the edge of your level of embarrassment.”
U2’s 1987 album The Joshua Tree, featuring I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, made them international superstars.
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