Citations

[About his foster daughter Tiger Lily, the daughter of Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence] "She calls me Dad. We were shopping the other day and they played one of my songs then one of her dad's. She said, 'That's you, Dad'. Then she said, 'That's my real dad. My real dad's a better singer than you, Dad". I just said: 'Sheesh... Thanks".

[About different motivations for taking up causes] "Bono as we all know, is in love with the world, he's enamoured by it. I'm enraged by it. He wants to give the world a great big hug, I want to punch its lights out."

We need finally to move from charity (Band Aid, Live Aid) to political and economic justice. Charity deals with the pain of poverty, the hunger, disease and conflict, but to finally end these things one must focus not on the symptoms of poverty but on its structures. Why does it exist? How does it exist? What can we do to stop it and its awful symptoms? That can only be addressed by political change.

I think people respond well to the facts. The fact that a few miles away from Europe there is a continent where the majority of the population go to bed hungry every night should resonate with all of us. It is in our interests too to look after our neighbors. I find that the best strategy is to make the public aware of the situation and what needs to be, and can be, done about it. Sometimes the politicians need a bit of an ear-bashing to help them on their way to these solutions (but if the voters told the politicians to sort it out I could pipe down a bit - it is in your power to shut me up!).

Individual charity is essential, one human to another reaching over the impenetrable roar of political discourse to assist another in pain. Not to do this would kill us spiritually, but it will not deal with the structures of poverty that allow that pain to exist. Concerted, coherent, durable and massive political action can do that.

[on "Dark Side of the Moon" by Pink Floyd] They had become conflated in my mind with this thing, which I had really thought was the death of music, prog rock and stuff like that. It was over-considered, middle class, intellectual English stuff. I didn't have it, uniquely amongst the planet I have to say, but it's only much later that I realized the scale of their achievement. What it is is a great record, that's what it is. It is absolutely one of the cardinal pillars of rock 'n' roll, in my view now.

My sisters were complete Cliff and the Shadows nuts. They shared a bedroom, and they had Cliff and the Shadows everywhere, all over the walls and ceiling. I thought he was a bit girly, but if you turned over to the B-sides, they were fairly hardcore. I really mean that. The guitar-playing was the first time I heard what we would now call rhythm and blues, and I liked that.

I was interested in the blues, because Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards] used to say, "forget about us, go and listen to Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf". So I dutifully went to the record shop and said "have you heard of these people?" That someone could be called Howlin' Wolf. Wow. I listened to that music and I adored its primitivism. I joined the Irish Blues Appreciation Society. I was member 11. Out of 13.

We believed rock and roll would last forever. Now I don't think it will. I think the diffuse nature of the medium means pop culture has won. We are pop culture. It's harder to identify the new and art has lost its ability to shock. Music is also trying too hard - there's a massive amount of stuff to reference, so why shouldn't I?

You've got all the baggage that comes with me: The Boomtown Rats, all the tabloid stuff... You've got to get through an awful lot of stuff, then put it aside and say, "well, I'll have a listen, I'll give him a go". But bizarrely enough, people do buy my stuff, so I get to play great theatres all over the world. Except in the UK, where they don't give a crap.

[on Live Aid (1985)] I was content. We had got every major British pop artist of the last quarter of a century.

[on David Bowie's endorsement of Band Aid] That's the seal of approval for the rock community. Bowie says it cool. Must be then. It doesn't get much cooler than Bowie.

[on David Bowie's suggestion that Live Aid should be an annual event] If he wants to give up six months a year to do it, fair enough. Live Aid took me six months to organise. I can't afford the time to organise another one myself.

[on Live Aid (1985)] Queen were absolutely the best band of the day. They played the best, had the best sound, used their time to the full. They understood the idea exactly, that it was a global jukebox. They just went and smashed one hit after another. It was the perfect stage for Freddie [Freddie Mercury]: the whole world. And he could ponce about on stage doing We Are The Champions. How perfect could it get?