Wertsie, it's really cool that your parents like them too!
Interesting story IWB.
Ehm, mine is long and I can't quite place the events in exact order, but I'll try!
The first I remember about U2 is seeing Red Rocks on TV when I was what... 10? And I thought that was the coolest place for a concert. I should have gotten hooked then but I didn't.
For some reason, I can't remember when I first heard some of their songs, like Pride, NYD and WOWY... but I can remember those songs being a part of my life, it was so normal to hear them and think they were very cool... WOWY has been one of my favorite songs forever. OK, still not a die hard fan...
When R&H came out, I saw some of the videos and I really liked Desire and Angel of Harlem. I should have become a big fan then, but I didn't.
A long time after that, I got the soundtrack for the movie "Reality Bites" and I fell in love with AIWIY. I don't know why I didn't go looking for more U2... I just didn't.
Well, there was a long period of time when I thought U2 had broken up... In Puerto Rico, I can't remember hearing anything on the radio from the Zoo era...
I heard and loved HMTMKMKM, and I was thrilled to hear from U2 again. But after that, they disappeared on me once more... The Pop era didn't exist for me.
All this time I was wasting my time listening to hair metal bands, Bon Jovi and that sort of stuff...
I think the next time I saw U2 was on the VH1 Legends thing, I think that first aired around 1999?
I was really intrigued about their story, the fact that they had been together for so many years... I didn't fall in love with Larry then or thought they were particularly cute... BUT that did make me interested in hearing more from them. I think after that I went and bought the Best of 1980 - 1990 and I listened to it a lot.
Some time later I saw another VH1 or MTV special about the best songs or something like that and someone was talking about One, saying that was the best U2 song ever, etc... so I decided to buy Achtung Baby. I was kind of shocked by it and I only listened to it in the background while I was at work... I only liked One, and the chorus of WGRYWH seemed to come to my mind a lot, but that was it.
I heard BD on the radio a lot and I kinda liked it, but when I went to the record store with my neighbor and had almost decided to buy ATYCLB, he told me that he had listened to most of it and that it wasn't very good. I didn't buy it.
At a Christmas party in that same neighbor's house in 2001, we started talking and I discovered that not only had he bought ATYCLB, but also this DVD from one of the concerts of their latest tour (it was Boston, of course) and that it was awesome and I had to see it. I borrowed it, saw it and loved it. Elevation (and Larry) really grabbed my attention, I couldn't stop singing that song in my head. A few weeks, early 2002, I got ATYCLB, then the Elevation DVD and R&H, then all the commercially available videos, all the albums, books... everything I could find.
I also searched the internet like crazy for Larry pics... found Zootopia, then Interference and I became the crazy fan that I am today.
I forgot this bit! One night, I sat down in my room, put on my headphones and really
listened to Achtung Baby... That was a life changing experience, one of the best moments, ever... I get chills just thinking about it!!!
So, it's almost a life long muuuuuuusical journey to truly "find" U2... it was fate, or God, and I thank him for that.
Ok, you can wake up now, my rambling is over!