U2's Bono celebrated the New Year by posting a long, drug-fuelled (of the legal, painkiller variety) A to Z of 2014. As he rightly points out, "This is too long. You shouldn't have time to read this," - so we've done it for you.
Here are 5 key moments from Bono's personal A to Z of 2014 - which, thanks to ending up in New York Presbyterian "with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket," was written under the influence of some very strong painkillers.
1) "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 terms… 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.
Recovery has been more difficult than I thought... As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this."
2) "It's enough to put a fella off free speech... the problem about finding out what people think is...you find out what they think. Who are these people? Well if they put their real names to their invective then I guess they are people like me—people with the audacity to think they have a thought or a feeling that others should hear about… if they are hiding, I'm not interested.
If you're in an old pub here in Dublin, in fact most places, walk into the gents and further into the stalls; close the door and study the walls... nothing there... clean as a whistle. Where has all the graffiti gone? The bile and spleen, the grotesque drawing, the sexual meandering, the threats of violence to minorities? Where has it gone? It's on the blessed Internet."
3) "Completely unintentionally, in London in the autumn I confessed to the talk show host Graham Norton the reason that I wear tinted glasses is that I have been diagnosed as having glaucoma for the last seven years, but that I've probably had the disease as long as I've been wearing these kinds of glasses, which is 23 years!!!!
I think it shocked him a little bit… it certainly surprised the band that I'd gone public, but maybe it is time to be honest about such things."
4) "Elijah Bob [Bono's son], or Eli as he's known, is 15 and already a guitar shredder. Royal Blood is his favourite at the moment and their debut album is quite something. Motorhead is right up there too. I told him that Lemmy once helped U2 unpack their gear into the Marquee Club in 1980. When everyone wondered what he was still doing there mid-morning from the night before he said "playing space invaders". He wasn't joking. A master. Our boy Eli won't be a student for long."
5) "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."
U2 are planning a UK tour for October. Full tour dates are below. Buy tickets safely and securely with Seatwave
Sunday 25th October 2015 - The O2, London
Monday 26th October 2015 - The O2, London
Thursday 29th October 2015 - The O2, London
Friday 30th October 2015 - The O2, London
Friday 6th November 2015 – Glasgow SSE Hydro
Saturday 7th November 2015 – Glasgow SSE Hydro
