Bono MLK Death Threat Arizona

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U2387

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If you listen to Bono's speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame introduction, he recounts a story about the 1987 Governor Meacham controversy in Arizona. Mecham was a downright loser of a politician if there ever was one, really from the Pat Buchanan/Oliver North/Strom Thurmond mode, make daddy Bush look like a Democrat wing of the Republican Party. Due to the fact that the Democrats split their primary vote in 1986, this accident of history became governor of Arizona in 1987 and the joke was literally on the enitre state. His openly racist views cost the state tremendously as businesses and organizations pulled out. Too bad, Arizona is a REALLY beautiful state. He was finally impeached, but not before he held out on recognizing MLK Day as an AZ holiday. Bono talks about how the band had become involved in the movement against Mecham and had received death threats, taken very seriously by the FBI. A guy who said he had a ticket and a gun was going to shoot Bono if he sang Pride. As a concert security guard, that one is easy for me, I know what my boss would do: get that information and insist that no one comes into the stadium w/o getting patted down, we do that for plenty of shows! Anyway, Bono closed his eyes after the guitar solo, went into the 'early morning' verse and when the chorus came again, he looked up and Adam was standing in front of him. It was an emotional moment, Bono then said that Adam would have literally taken a bullet for him that night. However, THAT NIGHT is what is in question for me. All he said was it was in Tempe at the end of the JT tour. Does anyone know what show? the 19th or the 20th? (I have the second night, if it is the first night, I want to try to get that) Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you everyone!
 
Well you can get the bootleg from u2start I'm betting, but how wonderful is that story? I read it in the mishcka conversations book, and I just had to keep reading it. I love the tale. "I was trying to get lost in the beauty that's in the song..."


Course maybe Adam just decided to wander in front of bono that night and to this day is unaware of the circumstances...
 
COBL_04 said:
Well you can get the bootleg from u2start I'm betting, but how wonderful is that story? I read it in the mishcka conversations book, and I just had to keep reading it. I love the tale. "I was trying to get lost in the beauty that's in the song..."


I agree, I love this story.



Course maybe Adam just decided to wander in front of bono that night and to this day is unaware of the circumstances...

:lol:
 
I recall another book called "Bono in His Own Words" in which Bono says the incident happened in Los Angeles on the JT tour.

All 4 members were told of what was going on, so I think what Adam did was deliberate.

"There was a night in L.A. in the early part of the tour when we had a death threat that the police were taking very seriously indeed. Someone had sent the gun license into the U2 offices and they thought he had gotten into the venue. All of a sudden there were all these people on the stage which I really objected to. I never thought that sort of thing would bother me and, when I went out, it didn't. I just laughed it off, like The Blues Brothers - 'We're on a mission from God and we ain't finished yet.' The second night came up and the cops came up to us just before we were about to go on and said they'd made a mistake, He was coming tonight! "Now we get all kinds of racist jibes because we wrote a song for Martin Luther King, or pinko jibes because we did the Amnesty International Tour. Wherever you look we're a target for the loony fringe. So the second night, we're on stage and I'm singing 'Pride' thinking, 'If someone is going to do it, it will be during this number.' So I crouched down on the stage, shut my eyes and for a moment the thought of death crossed my mind. When I looked up I just saw Adam standing over me, between me and the crowd. It was a good, good moment."--Bono
 
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