60 Fun Facts About Bono

What is Bono's real first name?

Paul David Hewson is 'Bono' even to his family and bandmates; the nickname went through several versions, the first being the tongue-twister 'Steinhegvanhuysenolegbangbangbang'.

Bono wrote U2's 'Pride (In the Name of Love)' about which leader?

Martin Luther King was shot in the evening, not the 'early morning' of the lyric; Bono admits the slip, sometimes sings 'early evening' on stage, and corrected the line on a 2023 re-recording.

Bono's nickname 'Bono Vox' was adapted from the name of what kind of business just off O'Connell Street?

A hearing aid shop called Bonavox supplied the name; he disliked it until he learned that it loosely means 'good voice' in Latin.

Which childhood friend gave Bono his nickname?

Guggi, the painter Derek Rowen, chose the name, and the favour went both ways: it was Bono who renamed Derek 'Guggi'.

What was the name of the surrealist street gang Bono belonged to as a teenager?

Lypton Village members invented their own slang and renamed one another; the gang's habit also gave U2's guitarist his stage name, the Edge.

Which school did Bono attend when U2 formed?

Mount Temple Comprehensive gave him both his band and his wife: he began dating fellow pupil Ali Stewart in 1976, the year U2 formed there.

Who posted the 1976 school notice board advert seeking people to form a band, which Bono answered?

Larry Mullen Jr., then a 14-year-old drummer, hosted the first practice in his family kitchen; he joked that he was in charge for about ten minutes, until Bono walked in.

What was the first name the band that became U2 went by?

Feedback became The Hype, and then U2 on a night in 1978 when Dik Evans, the Edge's older brother, walked off stage in mid-show to mark his exit.

Which early U2 song did Bono write about his mother, who died when he was 14?

I Will Follow is sung from a mother's point of view, about her love for her child; Iris Hewson collapsed at her own father's funeral in 1974 and never recovered.

Which opera star sang with Bono on the 1995 single 'Miss Sarajevo'?

Luciano Pavarotti had pestered Bono for a song, phoning his house and warning that God would be very cross if he didn't write one.

During U2's Live Aid set in 1985, Bono famously left the stage to dance with a fan during which song?

'Bad' ran to about 12 minutes while he was in the crowd, which cost them 'Pride', then their biggest hit; the band thought they had blown it, yet the set is remembered as the one that made them.

Which U2 song won Bono the Grammys for both Record and Song of the Year in 2001?

Beautiful Day sounds like pure celebration, but Bono says it is about a man who has lost everything and finds joy in what he still has.

Which of Bono's Zoo TV Tour stage personas wore a gold lamé suit and devil's horns?

MacPhisto, a world-weary old devil, phoned public figures from the stage in character; at Wembley he wondered aloud whether to give the Archbishop of Canterbury a call.

Bono said his 'Fly' outfit paired Lou Reed's glasses and Elvis Presley's jacket with whose leather trousers?

Jim Morrison's trousers completed the look; the character began as a studio joke, when Bono put on oversized sunglasses to lighten the mood, and grew into a swaggering rock-star parody.

Bono's Mirror Ball Man character was meant to parody which group of people?

American televangelists gave the character his creed, that cash was a sign of God's blessing; in costume Bono would ring the White House from the stage and ask for the president.

In which city did Bono spray-paint 'Rock N Roll Stops the Traffic' on a fountain in 1987?

San Francisco's mayor, Dianne Feinstein, was running an anti-graffiti drive and condemned the stunt; Bono was cited and apologised, yet the fountain's own sculptor took his side.

Bono swore live on air while accepting which award in 2003, prompting a 'Clean Airwaves' bill in Congress?

A Golden Globe for 'The Hands That Built America' drew his delighted expletive; the FCC declined to fine NBC, so a congressman proposed listing the banned words in law, a bill that never passed.

Bono and the Edge wrote the theme song for which James Bond film, performed by Tina Turner?

GoldenEye nearly had other themes: Depeche Mode were asked first but were tied up touring, and Ace of Base wrote a rival song before their label pulled them out.

Bono and the Edge composed the music and lyrics for which Broadway musical?

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark kept postponing its opening night as cast members were injured and the show was reworked, and ended up with the longest preview run in Broadway history.

Bono and the Edge featured on 'We Are the People', the official song of which tournament?

UEFA Euro 2020 kept its name even though the pandemic pushed it back to 2021, which is when Dutch DJ Martin Garrix released the song with them.

In the 2007 film Across the Universe, Bono appeared as 'Dr. Robert' singing which Beatles song?

I Am the Walrus is his character's showpiece; like Jude, Lucy and Prudence in the same film, 'Dr. Robert' takes his own name from a Beatles song.

Bono voiced Clay Calloway, a reclusive lion rock legend, in which animated film?

Sing 2 casts him as a star who vanished from public life after his wife died; U2 also wrote a new song for the film, 'Your Song Saved My Life'.

What is the title of Bono's 2022 memoir?

Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story explains its own title: the memoir is told in 40 chapters, and each one is named after a U2 song.

Bono's 2025 documentary film of his one-man stage show was released on which streaming service?

Apple TV+ continued a long tie-up: in 2014 Apple added U2's album Songs of Innocence to its customers' iTunes libraries unasked, a giveaway Bono later apologised for in print.

Bono says he was first inspired to activism by seeing a benefit show for which organisation in 1979?

Amnesty International's Secret Policeman's Ball, staged by Monty Python's John Cleese, 'sowed a seed', Bono said; seven years later U2 toured America for Amnesty on the Conspiracy of Hope tour.

After Live Aid, Bono and his wife volunteered for several weeks at a feeding centre in which country?

Ethiopia's famine was the cause Live Aid had raised money for; at the camp the couple helped write songs and one-act plays that taught children about health and hygiene.

What does DATA, the name of the advocacy group Bono co-founded in 2002, stand for?

Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa listed what it lobbied rich countries to act on; in return the group pressed African leaders for democracy, accountability and transparency.

Bono co-founded the ONE Campaign in 2004 with which nephew of John F. Kennedy?

Bobby Shriver, son of JFK's sister Eunice, had already started the advocacy group DATA with Bono in 2002, and the pair went on to launch the (RED) brand in 2006.

Money raised by Bono's Product Red brand goes to which organisation?

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria receives it: partner brands such as Apple and Nike sell red-branded products and hand over a share of the profits.

Which US president said his AIDS relief plan, PEPFAR, would never have passed Congress without Bono?

George W. Bush said so in 2018 while his presidential centre gave Bono a leadership medal; the singer had first lobbied the Republican president at the White House in 2002.

Bono shared Time magazine's 2005 Person of the Year honour with which couple?

Bill and Melinda Gates shared the cover with him as 'The Good Samaritans'; Bill had expected his first meeting with Bono, in 2002, to be a waste of time.

Bono's honorary 2007 knighthood made him a Knight Commander of which order?

The British Empire's order made him a KBE, but as an Irish citizen he can't be called 'Sir'; he joked that his youngest son thought he was about to become a Jedi.

Which US president awarded Bono the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2025?

Joe Biden's citation called him a 'pioneering activist against AIDS and poverty' who brought rival parties together; Lionel Messi and Hillary Clinton were honoured in the same group.

In 2016 which magazine made Bono the first man honoured at its Women of the Year awards?

Glamour honoured his 'Poverty Is Sexist' campaign for the world's poorest women; Bono said he asked his wife whether he deserved the award, and she wasn't sure.

Bono was among the first three recipients of which award, which grants a 'wish to change the world'?

The TED Prize gave him three wishes; the first was for a movement of a million Americans campaigning for Africa, and TED's backers helped build the ONE.org sign-up drive that followed.

Bono guest-edited a 2007 'Africa Issue' of which magazine, published with 20 different covers?

Vanity Fair had Annie Leibovitz photograph 21 famous faces for the issue and pair them up across the covers, each one a shout-out for Africa's future.

In May 2022 Bono and the Edge played a metro station used as a bomb shelter in which city?

Kyiv's Khreshchatyk station hosted the 40-minute acoustic set, played at President Zelenskyy's invitation; a Ukrainian singer then serving as a soldier joined Bono on 'Stand by Me'.

Bono and the Edge bought and refurbished which hotel in the Irish capital in 1992?

The Clarence had been a favourite haunt of their youth, so they gathered a consortium of Irish investors to buy it and restore it as a boutique hotel.

The fashion label EDUN, co-founded by Bono and his wife in 2005, takes its name from what?

'Nude' spelled backwards was meant to suggest both 'natural' and the Garden of Eden; the label set out to help Africa through trade rather than aid, by making its clothes there.

Bono was a managing director of which private equity firm, which bought Facebook shares before its flotation?

Elevation Partners took its name from a U2 hit; reports that its Facebook stake had made Bono a billionaire were wrong, Forbes found, because the gains were shared among partners and investors.

Bono bought his Manhattan duplex in the San Remo building from which tech founder?

Steve Jobs spent years renovating the tower-top apartment and never lived in it; he was already trying to sell it in 1998, and Bono finally bought it in 2003.

Bono is rarely seen without sunglasses because he has which eye condition?

Glaucoma was something he had lived with for about 20 years before he said so in public, on The Graham Norton Show in 2014, where he added that treatment meant he would be fine.

In 1996 police in which country shot at a plane carrying Bono, mistaking it for a drug smuggler's?

Jamaica's police opened fire as the seaplane taxied on the water near Negril; nobody was hurt, the government apologised, and the pilot later turned the scare into a song.

Bono's serious 2014 bicycle accident happened in which New York green space?

Central Park was where he swerved to avoid another rider; five hours of surgery left three metal plates and 18 screws in his arm, and he wondered if he would ever play guitar again.

In his memoir Bono revealed that a 2016 'brush with mortality' was in fact what?

Open-heart surgery lasting eight hours repaired a 'blister' on his aorta; the scare led him to rework the lyrics of the album U2 were recording at the time.

Bono's son Elijah is the lead singer of which rock band?

Inhaler owe their name to Elijah's asthma: people started calling the teenage band 'the Inhalers' and it stuck. Their debut album topped the UK chart in 2021.

Which record label founder lent Bono and Ali his Caribbean estate for their honeymoon in 1982?

Chris Blackwell, founder of U2's label Island Records, stepped in because the band was in debt to the label and the newlyweds could not afford a honeymoon of their own.

Aptostichus bonoi, a trapdoor spider named after Bono, was discovered in which US national park?

Joshua Tree National Park is its home, so biologist Jason Bond named it after the singer of U2's album The Joshua Tree; the same study named spiders for Barack Obama and Penn Jillette.

Bono sang with which charity supergroup in 1984, then again in 2004 and 2014?

Band Aid's Bob Geldof had to talk Bono into singing a line he loathed in 1984; for the 2014 version, recorded to fight Ebola, the lyrics were rewritten.

Who told Bono he was a baritone who thinks he's a tenor?

His father, Bob Hewson, had a strong tenor voice himself and loved classical music, yet he seldom praised his son's singing, even once U2 had made Bono a star.

With which singer did Bono record 'Don't Give Up' in 2005 for the charity Keep a Child Alive?

Alicia Keys co-founded Keep a Child Alive, which supplies medicine to families living with HIV; the pair retitled the Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush duet 'Don't Give Up (Africa)'.

Bono wrote which U2 song to make up for forgetting his wife Ali's birthday?

Sweetest Thing was his apology for working in the studio through her birthday; when it came out as a single in 1998, Ali had its profits sent to her charity for Chernobyl's children.

In which affluent Dublin suburb has Bono kept his primary home, Temple Hill, since the 1980s?

Killiney became home after a spell in a Martello tower down the coast in Bray, one of the round forts built to guard against an invasion by Napoleon.

Which musician was flying the plane carrying Bono that police shot at in January 1996?

Jimmy Buffett had bought and restored the old Navy seaplane two months earlier; it took a few bullet holes, nobody was hurt, and it now sits outside his Margaritaville restaurant in Orlando.

Bono says he found his own voice after hearing which singer at a Dublin gig?

Joey Ramone made the teenage Bono less self-conscious about his own singing; in 2014 U2 thanked him with the song 'The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)'.

Bono's emergency back surgery in May 2010 forced U2 to pull out of headlining which festival?

Glastonbury lost its Friday headliners a month before the festival, after Bono was rushed to a Munich clinic; Gorillaz stepped in, and U2 finally played there in 2011.

Bono co-wrote the story for which Wim Wenders film, released in 2000?

The Million Dollar Hotel grew from a story by Bono and Nicholas Klein; a U2 song on its soundtrack, 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet', took its lyrics from a Salman Rushdie novel.

At the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, Bono called on the US to give what?

An extra 1% tithe of its budget was his ask: he told the president and Congress that churchgoers tithe up to a tenth, while less than 1% of the federal budget went to the world's poorest.

Bono and the Edge wrote the score for which Royal Shakespeare Company stage adaptation in 1990?

A Clockwork Orange opened at London's Barbican in 1990 with their score; Anthony Burgess, who wrote the script and had wanted classical music, reportedly dismissed it as 'neo-wallpaper'.

Which Northside street where Bono grew up gives its name to a song on U2's Songs of Innocence?

Cedarwood Road, between Ballymun and Finglas, was home from when he was six weeks old; the song looks back on the friendships and street violence of his teens there.