U2 star: Restless world improver: Bono is 65

“I shouldn’t be here because I should be dead,” Bono sang. Since 1976 he has been the front man of U2 – a person who has overused his heart: as a musician, activist, husband, father and as he says: “Troubleaker”. Today the IRE turned 65.

Bonos heart seems great, but is not invulnerable – because of a heart disease, he had to go under the knife for eight hours almost ten years ago.

But he is still here: the man who wrote hits like “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “Pride (in the name of Love)”, “With Or Without You”, “One” and “Beautiful Day”. The Dublin survived the heart surgery at the time, as well as other near-death experiences-accidents, and threats to murder.

He wants to improve the world for decades

Born in 1960 when Paul David Hewson was born, he received his artist name from youth friends – friends with whom he is still closely connected to this day.

One of the most influential musicians in the world became one of the most influential musicians in the world from the middle class child of a mixed Catholic-Protestant family, which grew up in a period characterized by unemployment and the Northern Ireland conflict. He has been trying to improve the world not only on the stages of the stadiums, but also on the political parquet for decades.

Charisma that moves people

The U2 appearance at Live Aid in 1985 in Wembley is the milestone. Bono disappeared into the crowd for twelve minutes – to dance with a woman. Risky for the band, unforgettable for millions of viewers: the charisma of the 1.68 meter little Irish with the tinted glasses moves people. He carries the glasses because of a glaucoma (green star), as he once revealed.

With U2 he sold over 170 million albums, got 22 Grammys – more than any other band. “The Joshua Tree” (1987) made Bono and Co. superstars, “Attention Baby” (1991) on cultural reference – and the singer about moral authority, which asks uncomfortable questions about guilt and responsibility.

“Mascot of the powerful”

As a co-founder of the campaign and lobby organizations One and (red) he became a mouthpiece in the fight against poverty and avoidable diseases. He did persuasion for various US presidents-among others with George W. Bush in order to win him over for a billion-dollar AIDS program.

The (red) only flowed into a fund to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. In his autobiography “Surrender” Bono admits: “Sometimes I felt like the mascot of the powerful.”

He was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize and beaten by Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 to the Knight Commander – without the “sir” because he is not a Brit.

He was nominated twice with U2 songs for an Oscar: with “The Hands That Built America” ​​(2003) and “Ordinary Love” (2014), the latter is dedicated to Nelson Mandela. At the beginning of this year he was honored by the then US President Joe Biden with the Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian award in the United States.

Despite his work in the USA-most recently as a voice actor as an aging rock star lion in the animated film “Sing 2” and at concerts in Las Vegas-Europe remains a matter of the heart for him. “Europe is a thought that has to be a feeling,” he wrote in a guest post in the “FAZ”. It is a “theater of powerful, emotional, colliding forces” – and a band that connects us all.

Bono has been married to Ali Hewson since 1982 – his great love. The couple has four children: actress Eve (33), Inhaler front man Elijah (25), entrepreneur Jordan (35) and John (23), who stays out of the public. Bonos friends include Herbert Grönemeyer, Gavin Friday, Salman Rushdie, Noel Gallagher – an illustrious circle of art, pop and politics.

His biggest misstep? Probably the iTunes campaign in 2014, when the U2 album “Songs of Innocence” automatically ended up in millions of iPhones-not all Apple people liked the gift.

At 65, Bono is also a moral brand, a restless world improver-and someone who puts his finger in the wounds of the (self) doubt. It is open whether doubts will be the topic of his texts on the next U2 album.