‘I Still Find It Hard to Surrender’: 6 Takeaways From Bono’s New Yorker Festival Interview About His New Book

Bono told journalist David Remnick about the secret behind his 40-year-marriage, the band almost breaking up and the song that kept them together, and more.

You may know Bono as the lead of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, U2, but the rock star is so much more than that. The 62-year-old Irishman is activist in the fight against AIDS and campaigns for Africa while being a 22-time Grammy Award-winning artist.

A man known for his social justice philanthropy and unique voice, Bono kick-started the night at the New Yorker Festival on Friday (Sept. 7) with a performance of “With or Without You,” “City of Blinding Lights,” and “Vertigo.”

Then ahead of the release of his debut book, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, in November, Bono chatted with renowned New Yorker journalist David Remnick to discuss the upcoming memoir about his life. He spoke of the loss of his mother, how he came up with the name of the book, his bandmates reading the book, U2 almost breaking up and more.

Here are six major takeaways from the conversation between Bono and Remnick ahead of his memoir release.

Losing his mother made him turn to music

For his upcoming memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, Bono recalls his mother, Iris Hewson, dying from a brain aneurysm four days after collapsing at the funeral of her father, Gags Rankin, in 1974. The U2 frontman, who was just 14 years old, turned to music to cope with the heartbreaking death.

“It turned into a gift. This wound in me just turned into this opening where I had to fill the hole with music, and it’s a very unscientific theory I have. But, I do think that in someone you love passing, there’s sometimes a gift,” he said.