recreational drug story from zootv?

[indra]

Guess I've had my questions answered. Thanks!

 

[beli]

Guess I've had my questions answered. Thanks!

like the "would your opinion of them change if you found out they had dabbled/used/using?" That question? Who answered that question? lol

 

[indra]

like the "would your opinion of them change if you found out they had dabbled/used/using?" That question? Who answered that question? lol

Considering that many don't even want to consider the possiblity of drug use (other than very minor dabbling) by members of U2...well, I think that kinda answered the question.

 

[Edgette]

From an interview with Edge: Closer to the Edge (pt. 2). Hot Press, December 04, 2002

Adam aside, U2 never really had a reputation as wild party animals or serious hellraisers. Do you enjoy partying?

I certainly do. Always have. But you know, we were so focused on the band and everything else that we were doing that the partying was something that we really only did the odd time. I guess there's a side to that that I would see as a celebration -- like some kind of carnival -- and I don't see anything wrong with it. But you've gotta bear in mind that if you're doing it every night -- or every weekend, even -- then after a while you start to lose the reason why you're doing it. And in the end, if you do too much of any drug -- whether it's alcohol or whatever -- it will eventually end up taking the piss out of you, and you'll end up a victim. So you want to be pretty smart about how you party and what you do -- and what you don't do.

Did U2 ever go through a phase of experimentation with mind-expanding drugs a la the Beatles?

Not really...

Tricky once told me a funny story about taking mushrooms with Bono in Jamaica...

Well, there's one story about me doing mushrooms, which was in the Bill Flanagan book, which was about how I discovered all the secrets of the universe in Adam's house one time. I was on my own and very, very much in the middle of a psychedelic experience. And I found my Walkman -- a little like this thing (picks up Hot Press's Sony) -- and spent about four hours recording all the insights I was getting, all these amazing pearls of wisdom. So the following evening I remembered that I had done this, so I ran up to the room, put the tape in and hit the play button. And all I could hear was, "MUMPPHH, MUMPPHHH" (makes muffled sound). I'd spent three hours talking to the battery compartment! All of that wisdom gone forever (laughs). It was a shame. As far as I can could remember, I'd figured out most of the important issues.

Which U2 record would've been most influenced by that kind of experimentation?

I don't think our work has ever been influenced by that, because I think we realised almost at the very beginning of the band...(pauses). We'd been told that all bands are out of it on stage and so we tried that once in about 1977. And it was such an unmitigated disaster that we vowed at that point that we'd never do it again. I don't know whether it's true that some bands perform out of it, but certainly that night showed us that we were not gonna be one of those bands (laughs). It just wasn't gonna work. So we've never recorded or played live while we were out of it.

Not even during the making of Pop?

No. You're just gonna end up losing sharpness, losing objectivity. And far from being a release I think it would actually dull the mind. I know a lot of people do it -- especially writers. William Gibson is famously a drinker and would do a lot of his work tanked -- you know, sitting at the typewriter with a bottle of vodka. But I don't think it would work for us.

 

[david]

^^^^ that was awesome

 

[ultrraviolette]

Wow I'd really like to hear what he said into that tape recorder
What a funny story!

 

[Jack In The Box]

the mushrooms story is so hilarious

thanks Edgette for that interview fragment

 

[Dr. Lemonseed]

To answer your question, I think temperance is a wonderful example. They clearly kept all their brain cells intact, so more power to 'em.

 

[U2utah2U]

Hey, I already asked this but does anybody know exactly where the mushrooms story is in the Flannagan book? I just read it and don't remember reading that part. But I could have skipped it. Any body have a page number or chapter or rough idea of the time frame?

Thanks

 

[Queen Bee]

It was on chaper 39, pages 329-330.

 

[thrillme]

Wasn't there a recent HTDAAB interview with the band, where Adam makes some kind of comment about smoking and his voice, and Bono looks over to Adam and says "yeah, but at least my vices are legal"?

Are you sure, I thought it was Steve Lillywhite who said he and Adam are now looking after Bono, to which Bono replied, "yeah, but at least my vices are legal."

 

[elffriend]

There were a few rumours in the 80's that Bono had tried heroin just once to see what it was like, but I think that some of the lyrics on The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum sparked those (ISHFWILF is about heroin abuse in Dublin and there are references to heroin in Hawkmoon 269).

I would be disappointed in them all if they had a serious drug problem, but at least Adam has given up drinking and is trying to quit smoking (well he was in 2001 anyway) and I believe Bono stated he had an allergy to alcohol in general apart from very expensive vintage red wine!!!!

 

[kiwilad]

Guess I've had my questions answered. Thanks!

I feel like such a prude saying this, but I guess I would feel odd if U2 were uncovered as regular users. I'm not sure why, probably because they've always been promoted as 'clean', and that helps them seem real to me.

Also, I became a fan in 1988, when I was young enough to believe that drugs were the devil. Any revelation proving their guilt would completely destroy my sheltered childhood memories!!!

 

[Indiana Jones]

Here's a run-down of drugs U2 have taken:

Adam: Alcohol. Marijuana. He's now a tea-totaller.

Larry: Alcohol. Tried marijuana but didn't like it. He's the straight man of this comedy quartet.

Edge: Alcohol. Marijuana (not very often). Tried LSD and mushrooms a few times.

Bono: Alcohol. Marijuana (see Edge). Tried LSD and mushrooms a few times.

That's it, folks. There's a definite pattern linking all four, a pattern that stereotypes the Irish. However, nothing hardcore (heroin, cocaine etc).

Of course, I could be wrong.

A lot of drug rumours come about because U2 hang out with drug users, such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Michael Hutchence, Steve Lillywhite (coke), most other people in the entertainment industry. Guilty by acquaintance, as far as the media is concerned.

Personally, I'd be bitterly disappointed if Bono or any of the others turned out to be a user of coke or heroin etc. The way Bono preaches, he'd be a fucking hypocrite if he sings Bad and then goes to an after-concert party and snorts coke all night. If I knew Bono had done hard drugs, and I met him, I'd give him a fucking earful; there's nothing I hate more than hypocrisy. Considering how Bono, Edge and Larry reacted to Adam being severely hungover and unable to play in Sydney 1993, imagine what'd happen if any of them did hard drugs while on tour or recording an album. It'd be the end of U2. They're still together, making great music, so don't believe the media and people who "heard a rumour". When I worry is between records and tours, when it's party time.

Speaking of Edge discovering the secrets of the universe, I did something similar. I drank an entire bottle of Jameson whisky in one night. Whilst my friends decided it was time to go to bed, I sat at the kitchen table with a piece of paper and a pen, convinced I'd discovered the meaning of life. My friends got up the next day to find me asleep at the table, pen in hand ... except I'd written with the wrong end of the pen! I had ink all over my face and nothing on paper, just scratch marks. We rubbed over them with crayons, but I didn't press hard enough. Some things we're just not meant to know I guess ...

 

[U2girl]

From an interview with Edge: Closer to the Edge (pt. 2). Hot Press, December 04, 2002

Thanks for that.
I couldn't rememeber the interview but I knew he said they tried it the 70s in a show, but decided to not do it anymore.

I suppose that will answer any "U2 are druggies" debate.

 

[BVS]

There were a few rumours in the 80's that Bono had tried heroin just once to see what it was like, but I think that some of the lyrics on The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum sparked those (ISHFWILF is about heroin abuse in Dublin and there are references to heroin in Hawkmoon 269).

ISHFWILF about heroin...don't think so.

Running to a standstill...yes.

 

[BVS]

During the Popmart tour I read an article where the band actually limited their drinking backstage after the show to one or two pints, I guess to reduce the temptation for Adam.

During the making of Pop there was an article where the author talked about Howie and Adam were hand rolling cigarettes and mixing a little marijuana in there. So he was still smoking then, though he wasn't drinking.

Recent article Bono's admitted to drinking too much after his father passed and he left town, but then realized what he was doing and came home.

 

[paulrg]

I think anyone who has ever known anyone with a drug abuse problem would agree that U2 are certainly not junkies.

Mixing in the circles they do, the showbiz parties and life on the road must have put a certain amount of temptation in their way, and obviously one or more of them (certainly Adam) have succumbed to that temptation. That does not diminish my view of them. If they were regular users of heroin or coke then I would be effed off at their hypocrisy, but as I've said that is not the case. The reality of drug abuse is that it steadily decapacitates the user until they become shadows of their former selves. Pick any rock "icon" from the fifties/sixties with an abuse problem and tell me it ain't so. Instead U2 are very much at the top of their game, haven't disappeared totally up their own arses and are helping (esp. Bono) make the world a better place.

So no worries about the band being hard users from here. A night on the booze and a few smokes is alright by me!

I also remember reading a Bono interview (don't ask me where) where he said that he never answers questions about drugs cos he does not want to be that kind of a role model. He also pointed out that their lives are so different to the average persons in that if they ever did develop an addiciton problem they could at least afford the best rehab. I'm glad they've avoided the rock n roll cliche & have stuck together and treated their fans with respect.

 

[Indiana Jones]

What about their kids?

It's none of my business, but if dad's making millions of bucks and has a coke habit, then it doesn't bode well for the kids now does it?

I don't think Ally's the kind of woman who'd tolerate that shit in her house. Bono's a very lucky man. Just as he's surrounded by people shooting heroin and snorting coke and having orgies, he's got a lot of good solid people on his side who won't tolerate him playing up and doing the wrong thing. He might get away with it once or twice, but I just can't see it happening. People who reckon Bono does hard drugs don't consider his wife and kids and the people who ground him.

Cocaine, heroin, superglue ... I just wish Bono would fucking quit smoking!

 

[blueyedpoet]

hey, let's all be honest and go to It's Official and admit what we have dabbled in..

 

[Indiana Jones]

hey, let's all be honest and go to It's Official and admit what we have dabbled in..

Okay. I admit it. I'm addicted to ... U2.

I can't help it man, they get me so HIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

This thread is hilarious. So here I go ----> I know some fucked up junkies and U2 certainly don’t look or act like them and never really did. However I don’t know U2 intimately so what do I really know, right? But if people think they used drugs during the making of Pop or AB just because those records are so different and experimental compared to what they had done in the 80’s or whatever than those people are, I’m sorry, but stupid to the point of making me laugh my motherfucking ass off. I’m not naïve to the point of thinking that some of them, or maybe all of them, could have never tried some stuff here and there but they never gave any real indication that they (besides Adam) have used any substance heavily, besides alcohol. I think they have preached too much about the right things to do in life and the right ways and blah, blah, blah , to be using drugs and don’t feel like complete hypocrites.

In Bono’s case, as Indiana Jones have said (this sounds funny), Ali would probably have kicked his ass long ago if he were into something besides alcohol. The man likes to play the rock star but it doesn’t mean he lives the role 100%. They’re all great artists that can pass the right emotions.

Being so famous as U2 is and Bono being such a target, everybody would know by now if they used drugs. I’m sure there’s a shit load of public people out there who are not too fond of Bono and see him as goody little two shoes and who would jump on the opportunity to tell the world that he uses some kind of drug and make him look bad. A drug user can’t hide the fact that he is a junky too long or too well for so long.

Let's concentrate on facts and not fiction.

THE GOAL IS SOUL....

Best thing said on this thread! Some people are implying some stuff as real just based on what they think could be the truth.

 

[Lisa71]

A drug user can’t hide the fact that he is a junky too long or too well for so long.

I agree with you. Sooner or later it would have come out. I'm sure they've all dabbled but I seriously doubt they have any addictions to drugs. Beer....that's another story LOL

 

[ZeroDude]

Aint Noone want an addiction in the first place

 

[Dr. Lemonseed]

Wow. Hot thread. I have never met or seen any member of U2 aside from concerts, so I admit my post is speculative at best. Still, I stick by my beliefs--I think they liked pot for a while, booze it up too much, tried hallucinogens, and Bono may have coked up during the bands' low points of late ZooTV.

In fact, I would like people to re-watch his MacPhisto speech during Sydney. To me, that's just about textbook case of being on coke (and anyone who's tried will know what I mean).

Nonetheless, I don't think any of them were addicted, or do much of anything anymore these days.

Clearly they've had very personal experiences with drugs, or he wouldn't write a song about it. Clearly they're not totally against them or he wouldn't sing "isolation, revelation" and "hallelujah" during heroin songs. Those words are about the contradictory feelings he has toward them, and IMO a concession toward their allure! Finally, they've never really said "No, we don't do drugs" or "We don't/haven't done that shit." If they truly were fully against them, it would be CLEAR CUT. They're honest about everything, and I can't say I've heard them say "no." Temperance and dabbling, I do believe.

My two cents. But perhaps we all just project our own opinions of drugs onto them.