One of the first things Bono and I had in common was our love for Elvis and our love for Willie Nelson. It was 1988 and I took Michael Hutchence over to meet Bono at the Sunset Marquis Hotel. It was that same night, in the early hours of the morning, down at the piano in the lobby, Bono hummed a tune which was just gorgeous.
‘Wow, what’s that song, how come I love that song so much?’
He said, ‘You love that song Lian because I wrote it for Willie Nelson.’
I said ‘What happened to it?’
Bono said, ‘Nothing happened...’
I said, ‘Why?’
He said, ‘Can you imagine some upstart rock star sends one of the greatest songwriters of our time a song... Willie didn’t respond.’
Cut to years later. I'd been asked to make a video for Willie Nelson but he was on tour and the record company gave me some options of where I could shoot it. They mentioned Dublin. 'Oh Dublin? I could shoot it there’. I was on the phone with Willie’s manager, he had no idea that I knew Bono or the band and he brought up the song. He said, ‘You know Bono wrote Willie Nelson this beautiful song, and Willie just always waited, hoping to be able to do it with him one day. ‘Oh really?’ I hung the phone up, called Bono right away. I said ‘Do you remember that song?’ Then I went to Dublin right away.
I met Willie for the first time and said, ‘Hey do you want to come and meet U2 at their studio and have dinner?’ Willie was like, ‘Sure’. The band were like schoolboys, so nervous, Bono finally brought up the song. ‘Hey, Willie do you remember that song?’ I’ll never forget the big smile that washed over Willie Nelson’s face. I had my camera guy downstairs in the pub, just in case. The rest is history.
I love that recording. It is filled with nervousness, anticipation, hesitation, mistakes, shyness and beauty. I never liked the Brian Eno mix (sorry Brian). The irony is after Bono telling me about that song all those years ago, I was the one to bring Willie Nelson to his door.
