U2’s Larry Mullen Jr has revealed he has been diagnosed with dyscalculia, which is a form of dyslexia that affects his understanding of numbers.
The Irish drummer and co-founder of the band, 63, recently explained that “counting bars is like climbing Everest”, as he discussed his diagnosis publicly for the first time.
Mullen explained that he cannot count or add numbers, but never knew that he had a learning difficulty.
“I’ve always known that there’s something not particularly right with the way that I deal with numbers. I’m numerically challenged,” he told Times Radio.
“And I realised recently that I have dyscalculia, which is a sub-version of dyslexia. So I can’t count, I can’t add.”
According to the British Dyslexia Association, around six per cent of people have dyscalculia, which is defined as a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers, which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics.
Mullen, who co-founded U2 in 1976 with Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton, explained that his dyscalculia has long taken a toll on his drumming and performance.
“When people watch me play sometimes, they say, ‘You look pained,’” he said. “I am pained because I’m trying to count the bars. I had to find ways of doing this — and counting bars is like climbing Everest.”
Mullen, whose son is also dyslexic, appears in the forthcoming 2025 documentary Left Behind, which follows five mothers attempting to establish the first public school for children with dyslexia in New York City. The documentary is from writer Karen Sim and director Anna Wild Toomey, and has been shortlisted for an Academy Award.
Elsewhere in the interview, Mullen said that U2 were working on new material that would mark a shift in the band’s sound.
“I don’t think it will be what we normally do,” he said. “ I would hope it would be something different,” he said. “But I’m excited to get back in some capacity.”
The band are currently back in the studio after Mullen was forced to sit out of U2’s Las Vegas residency due to drumming-related injuries.
In 2022, Mullen said he discovered damage in his elbows, knees and neck, which he got a chance to look at during the pandemic.
The drummer said then that he would “like to take some time… to get myself healed”.
