(audience clapping)
Sitting here with U2.
Bono, Edge, Larry, Adam.
You know, this is a, it's such a thrill for us.
A real thrill. They giving me a Moses voice effect here.
I am God.
We knew that.
We knew that. Thank you.
I hope people take that out of context.
First of all, I want to say it's fascinating to me.
The, this is,
this is the same studio where you guys made your first
United States television appearance on the Tom Snyder show.
I don't know exactly what year that was,
but what year was it?
Like 81? You're back in this same space.
It's great.
It's good to see they've changed the carpet.
Yeah, they changed the carpet. Yeah.
Now you can get out of the business. Yeah.
I'm curious. I have a lot of questions.
First of all, I don't know who to direct this to,
but I'll just start with you, Adam.
Is it true? That in the beginning,
when the group first began,
Bono was going to be the lead guitarist
or wanted to be the lead guitarist. Is that true?
He definitely wanted to be the lead guitarist.
And what happened?
Well, then he became the rhythm guitarist
and then he became the manager.
(laughing)
And then he, elected to become the singer.
Right.
So, it worked out pretty good in the end.
Right. Right.
Did you get the feeling that they were trying to edge
you out somehow? No pun intended, but were they trying to,
they trying to move you along?
Yeah well, you know, I just, I was stuck for a job
and I would've taken, you know, anything.
I was ready to be then the road crew and you know,
but I don't, I don't deal with the gear very well.
[Conan O'Brien] Right, right.
And you thought ah I'll be the singer. I'll give it a shot.
Yeah.
You've gone through so many transformations.
You've managed to stay vital in this business for so long.
It's funny to look back now.
We actually have a photo that dates the band a little bit.
Can we see this photo here of Bono.
This is you back in the day.
(audience clapping)
You want to explain what was going on there?
Well, a man should never look like
his hair's been ironed.
(laughing)
First of all,
I'm not the one to give advice, but ah.
Yeah, no something was exploding there wasn't it?
Yeah. Yeah.
Underneath all of that, there was something.
(laughing)
It's a nice look.
You know, you've gone through,
the whole band has gone through so many changes.
You had that period where you guys
looked sort of like Flock of Seagulls.
I don't know if people remember this,
but take a look right here.
(audience laughing)
(audience clapping)
And there was that time the
Edge left and joined Kid 'n Play.
I don't know if you remember that ladies and gentleman.
(audience clapping)
Quite something.
Then no one likes to remember your heavy period.
You guys were fat for awhile there. It wasn't pleasant.
(audience clapping)
You've done such a, well, you're not coming back.
You're you're the, the,
the stage show you brought so much vitality to your stage
performances and you guys have been so great at using the
visual medium.
Was there any idea that you tried, a costume,
a prop and later on you thought maybe not the best idea?
Oh, well there's a few, but I suppose,
dressing up as a 40 foot Mirrorball lemon spaceship,
was probably.
A lemon spaceship?
Yeah.
Mirrorball. Yeah, believe it or not
it was, it was a sort of,
we had in the back of our heads,
sort of parliament, funkadelic. George Clinton.
Sure. Sure.
For white boys that was pretty brave. I think.
Right. Right.
And there was an idea that I guess that you've,
you've thought about doing,
but you've never quite had the guts
that involves a dead cowboy. Am I right about this?
Ooh.
These things shouldn't be talked about at all. Really?
That's what this show is for basically,
that's what we do here.
Yes. Secrets.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Secret.
There was an idea to,
we thought it was very avant-garde to,
to fly me in a cowboy hat, over the audience,
as a dead cowboy.
(laughing)
It it, we thought it would be a one-off event.
And it would be, you know, historically, remembered.
You should see the face, Larry just made.
Larry was just like, oh my God.
I remember that.
It was explained then by our management
that Jon Bon Jovi did this every night.
(audience laughing)
Nothing's original.
Now Larry, this band, you, you, this,
you really got this band together.
It was you who started everything. Really.
You put out an ad in the local, in your high school.
Is that right?
That's right. I'm am guilty.
You're the one that's guilty.
And the band rehearsed at your home. Is that true?
Yeah. In my kitchen. Yeah.
29 years this week.
Really?
(audience clapping)
So Larry.
You made it all happen. Why isn't the band
called the Larry Mullen Quartet.
What's up with that?
(audience laughing)
Have you ever pushed for that? It's not too late?
It was going to be Larry's
for the first 20 minutes of the first meeting.
It would kind of make sense that,
you know.
I think he had it on his base drum.
I did.
(laughing)
The Larry Mullen Band was there.
I thought I would be.
Max was a very big influence.
(laughing)
Yeah. It all starts when you put
it on the bass drum. Yeah.
(audience clapping)
I thought it would be a really good idea, you know,
to follow in the tradition.
The drummer be the leader.
Sure.
As Adam pointed out,
it's kind of difficult to lead from behind.
That's why Max had himself raised up
and shoved forward.
(laughing)
I might just mention, the last time
a great rock and roll band had
a very good looking drummer,
he was called Pete Best. And where is he now?
Oh, that's true.
That's a good point.
He just had a documentary actually on the BBC.
He's flying high.
Oh okay.
(laughing)
Beatles. Who remembers them?
I want to ask you something I've been curious about.
I've encountered this, you know, being an Irish person,
I've encountered it a little bit myself,
which there is an Irish mentality, which is good for you,
but don't get a big head.
Meaning they, like they
they're happy for you,
but it's a very tricky culture where they, they kind of,
they don't want you to get too big.
And I think this must be a problem for you guys because
you're some of the biggest stars in the world,
but you go home to your country.
Do you encounter that feeling ever?
You know, it's, it's, it's, it's
an amazing place to escape to.
And Ireland is really,
it's a really cool place to live and to bring up your kids
and all of that kind of thing.
But one of the reasons is because Irish people are so messy.
And it's very different than in America.
In America, you know,
you look up at the mansion on the hill and you say,
you know, one day I'm going to live in that mansion in, in,
in Dublin where we come from, especially on the north side,
people look at the mansion, the hill and go one day,
I'm going to get that son of a bitch.
(laughing)
It's a different thing.
Yeah. I'm familiar with that. Yeah. Yeah.
But you'd have a problem in Dublin,
just the tall poppy syndrome.
What's that? What's the tall poppy syndrome?
Just, I mean, just because I'm tall and,
and I look like a goofball.
What do you mean?
(audience laughing)
No, nothing.
(audience laughing)
Well now you're not coming back.
This is, we still have a lot more to come
as if I have to mention it's doing so well,
but U2's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
is in stores.
(audience cheering)
If you don't already have it but get it again why not.
And you're coming back. You're going to perform again.
We still have a lot more show to go.
Thank you so much for being here at stay tuned, everybody.