Bad - what's it about?

[gareth brown]

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Awake_in_America
"The EP's centerpiece, "Bad", a song about heroin addiction, would become a staple of their live set..."

After reading this, I'm intrigued...anyone care to elaborate on the story behind/inspiration for this song??

 

[LJT]

I thought Bono wrote it because he just saw a lot of friends in Dublin that had become addicted to heroin....hence the inspiration for the song.

 

[BVS]

Probably should be in 'Musical Journey'...


On some bootleg I used to have Bono introduced the song talking about how there was a heroin epidemic in Ireland and how a good friend was given enough on his 21st birthday that he od'ed.

 

[Lynz778]

Yeah, that was at the start of Bad from the Peace Under a Chigago Sky record. Bono says that when he was younger he joined a band, but most of his friends joined a dole line, and this guy he used to hang around with and play football with recieved so much heroin on his 21st birthday it ended up killing him.

 

[U2Kitten]

He came back home from the Red Rocks/War tour and met up with a guy he knew from school. He started asking about old friends, many of whom lived in the Ballymun Towers housing project, and found out one was in jail and one had died of drugs.