talking about his voice
i believe bono suffered from what's called vocal nodules
its lumps and or cysts that develop on your vocal chords through excessive or bad use of your voice. basically they prevent your vocal chords from closign properly which limits the volume and pitch of teh noise you make as well as the "smoothness"
things that make it worse are alcohol, smoking, yelling or overexerting your voice (can anyone say "world tour") spicy foods, too much caffeine, dairy products and ironically whispering plus a whole bunch of other stuff.
to get rid of them people normally try therapy first - this teaches you how to use your voice correctly without putting unneccesasry strain on the incorrect muscles - and you have to follow a strict "vocal hygeine" routine which means cutting out all the crap i mentioned above.
its pretty impossible to follow to a T unless you lock yourself in a room but its advisable to try your best at it and make a few sacrifices. if the nodules have been around too long or are too "far gone" and after 3 months of therapy they're not improved you have to get them surgically removed - its a relatively quick procedure but the rehab is intense. no talking for 2 weeks after op (not a word, i swear) and then back to the speech therapy for 3 to 6 months.
i should know, i had it done earlier this year
i had vocal noduls for about 2 years and it got to the point where it was making my life unbearable - i would completely lose my voice about once or twice a week, i couldnt be out on a friday night for more than 2 hours otherwise my voice would go for the next 3 days, i couldnt do any excercise because they limited my breathing (an existing problem i had but made worse by the nodules) and i had no vocal range whatesoever. my voice was really coarse and low and i had to cough a lot because it used to scratch.
i woudl spend half my life trying to talk really sofltly all simply struggling to get a sound out. it was beyond horrible
then i had them removed, suffered a painfully silent 2 weeks (i'm a yacker by nature, not to talk for a week was hell!) and months of therapy which was i hated cause it just seems so stupid - you['ve got to make silly noises and chant and crap.
but the difference is phenomonal - my voice is raised in pitch sllightly (but still quite husky cause it always has been) and i have a really good vocal range - i can hit notes i had no hope of before. because of the therapy i now know how to look after it properly and can be out in a loud place without having to worry too much about losing it or putting strain on it.
unfortunately itll always be a problem and i have to look after it really well - sometimes that does mean sacrifcing a night in the pub when i'm havine a bad day and more than once since i've had the op, i've had to go on vows of silence for varying degrees of time (up to a week once)
how bono manages world tours with it astounds me, and the damage he must be doing is scary. i'm pretty sure he's got top doctors to help though
referring to the smoking, the things you have to cut down on to help is pretty much all the good things in life - its impossible to stick to and to be honest we dont know how often bono smokes, if its once in a while then its not so bad - i'm meant to cut down on booze but i blatantly dont do that. however when it gets too bad i know when to stop. i'm sure bono does too
I would go 
!!!!!
what was it again you were going to replace it with? 
