Bono: 'It is not clear that I will ever play guitar again'
The U2 frontman opens up about Central Park bicycling accident, injury and iTunes
Still recovering from injuries suffered in a "high-energy bicycle accident" two months ago, Bono fears he may never be able to play guitar again.
"Recovery has been more difficult than I thought," the U2 frontman wrote in a lengthy blog post on the band's website Thursday night. "As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again."
The 54-year-old fractured his left eye socket, shoulder blade, elbow and hand when he crashed his bike in New York City's Central Park in November.
"I blanked out on impact and have no memory of how I ended up in New York Presbyterian with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket," Bono wrote. "Very punk rock as injuries go."
Bono blamed the accident on "overindulging" in exercise in order to compensate for overindulging in alcohol:
On the day of my 50th birthday I received an injury because I was overindulging in exercise boxing and cycling, which was itself an overcompensation for overindulging on alcohol coming up to the big birthday. I promised myself I would be more mindful of my limits, but just four years on, it happened again.
He underwent a five-hour surgery that included washing his elbow out, moving a trapped nerve and inserting three plates and 18 screws.
"I broke my hand, my shoulder, my elbow and my face," he continued, "but the real injury this year was to my Irish pride as it was discovered that under my tracksuit I was wearing yellow and black Lycra cycling shorts. Yes, LYCRA. This is not very rock 'n' roll."
Bono hasn't "been able to move around physically" since the accident, and the titanium elbow doctors gave him has given him doubts about his future guitar-playing ability.
He added that the band, including U2 guitarist The Edge, has "reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this."
"I personally would very much miss fingering the frets of my green Irish falcon or my (RED) Gretsch. Just for the pleasure, aside from writing tunes," Bono wrote. "But then does the Edge, or Jimmy Page, or any guitarist you know have a titanium elbow, as I do now?"
Bono prefaced his 6,000-plus word blog post, titled "Little Book of a Big Year: Bono’s A to Z of 2014," by warning fans it was far too long.
"You should not have time to read this," he wrote. "If you do get to the end of it then you are probably on the same painkillers as me."
He recapped the controversy surrounding the release of the band's album for free on iTunes:
Our album was to be like a bottle of milk dropped at the door of anyone interested in music and iTunes. As I understand it, the journey from the front door to the fridge and into what to some people felt was their bowl of cereal has something to do with a switch called "automatic download" — if you turn it on, you sign up for being pushed stuff.
That's about it ... no flagrant abuse of human rights, but very annoying to people who a) like being annoyed, and/or b) felt it was like someone robbing their phone in the pub and taking a couple of photos before leaving it back on the table ... some kind of breach of privacy which was really not intended. I empathise with the b)'s, but for the a)'s I've started referring them to the philosopher Jimmy Kimmel.
That Apple remains a music company is the best news for any one who wakes up with a melody in their head or wanting to hear one. Apple is unique in big tech in trying to get artists paid. That they would agree to pay Universal for SONGS of INNOCENCE, and then gift it to all the people who still believe music is worth paying for, both makes sense and is a beautiful thing.
U2's next tour is scheduled to begin in May.
"The consequences of this freak accident are significant enough that I will have to concentrate hard to be ready for the U2 tour in fitness term," Bono wrote. "As a result I have cancelled every public appearance and decided this missive is all the communication I can manage for the first half of 2015, beyond muttering and singing to myself of course."
