Comparing Bono's Personality During This 1987 Interview and Zoo TV Interview

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The Slow Loris

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With the first video - was he really being sincere here? He comes across overly humble…almost purposefully naive. I have seen interviews of him during The Joshua Tree era, and he has always come across far more in touch with his spiritual side during this time. Sometimes I wonder if he was acting humble on purpose, or if he really was going through a personality shift during this time, almost a transitional phase toward his more cocky, rock star, assured Zoo TV self. One could do a full research study on Bono's personality and metamorphosis, it seems….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Mu454Svpk

Now compare this personality and interview to the following one from Zoo TV only a few years later (pretty much the Bono we know today):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpL5Xse0M8M

Ironically, he is actually describing in this Zoo TV interview how he threw out the sincerity…and how he still didn't "know who [he is]" . Funnily enough, his singing voice also changed along with this (public) personality shift. Gone was the operatic, spiritually pleading vocals of Unforgettable Fire & The Joshua Tree. I'm also not sure if this was also reflected in his private (off the camera) personality…but there was definitely a shift in his public personality.

Any thoughts on this, or am I looking far too deep here?
 
Oh for fucksakes...

You're just seeing a man wearing different masks, that's it. One of cocksure and one of false humility.

Both of you have to understand context. You don't admit to wanting to be the biggest when you're up and coming, and in the 90's you do your best to align yourself with alternative(misunderstood pop kids video). That's it, plain and simple.


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Oh for fucksakes...

You're just seeing a man wearing different masks, that's it. One of cocksure and one of false humility.

Both of you have to understand context. You don't admit to wanting to be the biggest when you're up and coming, and in the 90's you do your best to align yourself with alternative(misunderstood pop kids video). That's it, plain and simple.

I don't see it like that.

I believe he was being honest in the 80's, not false humility.

The Fly is a character that mocks his 80's sanctious (and I believe "honest") self and ridicules the rock stars and what the media expects from them.
 
I don't see it like that.

I believe he was being honest in the 80's, not false humility.

The Fly is a character that mocks his 80's sanctious (and I believe "honest") self and ridicules the rock stars and what the media expects from them.
I agree with you to some extent, but I would say that in the Rolling Stone Interview, he was also being sincere (opposed to the 'Fly' character in the other video posted by thavidesco above). Bono pretty much has kept that more relaxed rock star image (seen in the Rolling Stone interview) for years now. I sometimes think this has always been his true personality, but he was masking it during The Joshua Tree era. But there again, it's difficult to tell, hence why I posted this thread. Once thing is for sure: Bono is a great actor in many ways. This is neither a good or a bad thing, just something that makes him an interesting case study...
 
I don't see it like that.



I believe he was being honest in the 80's, not false humility.



The Fly is a character that mocks his 80's sanctious (and I believe "honest") self and ridicules the rock stars and what the media expects from them.


But it contradicts in some ways other interviews from the eighties about their ambitions. I think you'd have to be somewhat naive to believe that late 80's Bono didn't have the desire to be in the biggest band.

I don't think he was mocking his honesty, he was mocking the perception of his 80's self. Bono himself has said that the perception of his 80's self wasn't really who he was, he did have a sense of humor, he wasn't sexless, he did enjoy his job as a rock star.


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Understandably being in a profession where you're creating art from personal experience and evolving as a human being at the same time your personality is going to change as well.
 
Not many '90s lead singers were able to handle what Bono handled in terms of success from 1987 to 1992 either. To be 27 years old and to be part of a band who wrote and released one of the greatest albums of all time and enjoyed whirlwind success in a span of a few years has to be incredible and a bit of a mind fuck to go through. So kudos to him for figuring it out in the '90s when others more or less failed.
 
But it contradicts in some ways other interviews from the eighties about their ambitions. I think you'd have to be somewhat naive to believe that late 80's Bono didn't have the desire to be in the biggest band.
I agree with you, but I just don't see it as "false humility", that's all.
Even if he's contradicting himself with other interviews.

We're all full of contradictions within ourselves, and our answers on how we see life or our career or our values and ambitions, usually depend a lot on our mood, on how good/bad has been our week, or even on the book we just read or the movie we just saw.

We can contradict ourselves and being honest at the same time, because usually life and opinions are not black and white, despite our love to believe they are.

Exemple:
Believing that the "inner beauty" is more important than looks.
You can believe that, say that and actually look for a honest/wonderful/selfless/whatever-quality-you-want girl.
And yet, chances are that more than once you'll get caught saying or doing or staring something that greatly contradicts your beliefs.
And you'll be honest in both cases.

I don't think he was mocking his honesty, he was mocking the perception of his 80's self. Bono himself has said that the perception of his 80's self wasn't really who he was, he did have a sense of humor, he wasn't sexless, he did enjoy his job as a rock star.
Off course.
That's a huge part of that "honest contradiction"... he has said that he did enjoyed it but at the same time felt that he had to "fight" it or "moderate" it.
The Fly was his way of say "fuck it!"
 
I don't think we really even need to dig deep into Bono's personality shift over the years since, the then 32-33 year old Bono he pretty much lays out what he learned about himself and music over the years up until that point in the first 1:10 seconds of that Rolling Stone interview.
 
. Once thing is for sure: Bono is a great actor in many ways. This is neither a good or a bad thing, just something that makes him an interesting case study...

Definitely. He prooves that every show, every interview, every meeting. He always adapts the way he acts for certain occasion. Mainly his characters during Zoo TV were Oscar award aspiring :)
 
Interesting that he talks about the importance of having songs on the radio, that all he really wants is for his music to be heard.

Not much has changed.

#lotsofhits


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Understandably being in a profession where you're creating art from personal experience and evolving as a human being at the same time your personality is going to change as well.

Not many '90s lead singers were able to handle what Bono handled in terms of success from 1987 to 1992 either. To be 27 years old and to be part of a band who wrote and released one of the greatest albums of all time and enjoyed whirlwind success in a span of a few years has to be incredible and a bit of a mind fuck to go through. So kudos to him for figuring it out in the '90s when others more or less failed.

Well said.
 
I've actually been thinking about this topic today, and found this, from when he was 22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWTT8Q8nN0

I really don't think the sincerity or humility was fake. I think he comes across as a smart young man with a good head on his shoulders, and I don't know if he would have it in him to present a fake persona at 22. If you look at the success he'd achieved 5 years later at 27 in the JT era video, and then again in another 5 years at 32 during the Zoo era, I think it's just a natural progression of growing and evolving. And while Zoo probably was a bit more of a conscious change, I can see how it would also be a natural progression because of the experiences they'd had to that point, coupled with the fact that I think by the time you reach your 30s, most people become more comfortable in their own skin. A lot of the Zoo persona I think started out being tongue-in-cheek, a performance of sorts, but I think he also ended up integrating some of it into his personality.
 
I've actually been thinking about this topic today, and found this, from when he was 22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWTT8Q8nN0

I really don't think the sincerity or humility was fake. I think he comes across as a smart young man with a good head on his shoulders, and I don't know if he would have it in him to present a fake persona at 22. If you look at the success he'd achieved 5 years later at 27 in the JT era video, and then again in another 5 years at 32 during the Zoo era, I think it's just a natural progression of growing and evolving. And while Zoo probably was a bit more of a conscious change, I can see how it would also be a natural progression because of the experiences they'd had to that point, coupled with the fact that I think by the time you reach your 30s, most people become more comfortable in their own skin. A lot of the Zoo persona I think started out being tongue-in-cheek, a performance of sorts, but I think he also ended up integrating some of it into his personality.
I love this clip of him as a young "business minded Bono". I almost think he is more like his current self here than his Joshua Tree incarnation. I'm inclined to think that Bono had to deal with so much stardem at a certain point, that it actually humbled him during The Joshua Tree period. With all those blessings, it caused him to be very grateful and possibly wanting to hold onto a piece of his innocence.
 
What the two interviews, and personas, have in common is that there's still a sense of distance and mystery about the band and the singer. I think that's the main thing that's changed between the U2 of olde and today - we, or at least I feel more that we know who Bono Is, and what he's really about if you hear him speak today, probably because he's figured those things out himself. That wasn't always true. And that goes to the whole 'why is U2 so hated' thread, where a simple answer is that familiarity breeds contempt. Doesn't always, but it can and I believe with U2 it often does. If anything, that's one good reason for the Zoo TV era switch it personas - to inject more mystery and a sense of the unknown back into a band, and a singer, that the public thought they had completely figured out by the end of the 80's, and perhaps grew somewhat tired of. 90's U2 seemed a new puzzle to solve, and got a lot of people interested again, both sonically and in term's of the band's and mostly Bono's persona.


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Bono is just always evolving as a person. Even comparing a 1983 interview to a 1987 interview and there is significant change in demeanor and how he articulates thoughts and ideas.
 
80's -> over-sincere, young, full of hopes that he can change the world
90's -> rock star attitude, making fool of his 80's character, lying and being ironical on purpose
00's and 10's -> he knows that he can't change the world the way he wanted in the 80's, he is just being himself, that's probably the closest he is in real life as well. Sometimes serious, sometimes not....he's grown up.
 
I can see how they wanted to be/come off humble in the '80s. It was aftereall, the era of big hair, synthesizers, over the top production, flashy videos, etc.. U2 were the earnest band. Of course that all changed in the '90s.
 
Not many '90s lead singers were able to handle what Bono handled in terms of success from 1987 to 1992 either. To be 27 years old and to be part of a band who wrote and released one of the greatest albums of all time and enjoyed whirlwind success in a span of a few years has to be incredible and a bit of a mind fuck to go through. So kudos to him for figuring it out in the '90s when others more or less failed.

Agreed. How many of us could handle all that scrutiny?
 
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