In Bono’s memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, the U2 lead vocalist discusses the threats that he and the band received as a result of their pro-peace stance. 

Bono claims that former Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said he “stinks” due to “U2’s opposition to paramilitaries (of all kinds) had cost the IRA valuable fundraising in the U.S.” He continued on to say that  “[A] famous gangland leader in Dublin had been planning to kidnap my daughters, that [the gangster’s] people had been casing our houses for several months and developed an elaborate plan.” 

He claims they were then targeted by far-right groups after the release of the 1984 song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and threatened that “he would not make it to the end of the song” if U2 did perform at a concert in Arizona due to the lyric about Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Bono spoke at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday, describing that he “got all messianic on myself” as he sang the verse “and then realized the gravity of the situation and I did close my eyes.” 

When he got to the end of the song he mentions, “I looked up and I realized I could not see the crowd because Adam Clayton was standing in front of me and he had been there for the entire verse.” 

Bono’s memoir is set to be released today (November 1, 2022).