The Edge Talks To Kevin & Bean About U2′s Postponed Tour

At the very end of Tuesday’s Kevin & Bean Show, U2‘s The Edge called in with the latest on Bono’s emergency back surgery and plans to reschedule their postponed U.S. tour dates.

Edge: The good news is that he’s going to be fine. He just has to rest up and do what the doctors tell him and he’ll be fine.  But we’re kinda breathing a sigh of relief that he figured out he was in trouble and called it and did seek the advice of some very good doctors.

Kevin: What happened exactly? How did he hurt it?

Edge: Well that’s the thing, I don’t really exactly know, I’m not sure… We’re all in pre-tour preparation mode trying to get  physically up to speed and whatever he was up to, what every workout regime, whatever he did, suddenly he realized he hurt his back and thought probably it was fairly minor, but then after a few days it was getting worse so he decided to get advice and that’s when they discovered that it was pretty serious.

To read the interview and listen to the audio, click more!

Kevin: Yeah, when you hear emergency back surgery on Bono you think wow, I haven’t heard of emergency back surgery much. That’s usually something down the road you decide slowly about…

Edge: …he was in so much pain and he knew that it was something major. But when the doctors did the scan, they realized that he’d done himself some serious damage that needed to be fixed immediately. I think the fact that they acted so quickly indicates that they thought it was pretty bad cause there was no choice, they had to just go in and operate.

Bean: Right, in the more than thirty years that you guys have played together as a band, how infrequent is it for you to miss or cancel shows, Edge?

Edge: You know, there’s been almost no precedent for this in our entire history, I mean, we are the band that shows up no matter what happens, I mean when Red Rocks was filmed in Colorado we actually performed in the middle of a storm and our promote was going crazy saying we had to cancel the show and we realized that even though not everyone showed up it was like a thousand people or so at this venue we said we just had to go on so, we famously played hail rain or whatever and so this is a new thing for us… It doesn’t rest easy with us I can tell you. I spoke to Bono on Sunday and his primary concern was the tour and the dissappointment of the fans and he was going on and on about that. Clearly, our concern was him, knowing that he was going to be fine was a huge relief. And now the next thing is that we have to get him well, that’s really the focus.

Bean: Imagine how tough it must be to get Bono off the phone the way that guy talks I mean seriously alright alright I get it already! (luaghter)

Edge: It’s probably the most rest he wilkl have had in decades.

Bean: Listen, the shows affected for North American Include June 3rd in Salt Lake City all they way through June 19th in Meadowlands and our understand from the early reports and tell if this is true Edge, is just hang onto your tickets if you’ve got ‘em and they’re going to be honored on the new dates when they get rescheduled.

Edge: yeah, we’re determined, we’re going to go, I’d say we’re ninety-five percent confident that Bono will be back in time for our European leg so hold onto your tickets, we will be back as soon as we can to play these concerts just canceled and we’re looking forward to the shows and that’s the real disappointment for us, we were so looking forward to playing.

Ralph: Well Edge instead of the 360 tour maybe you should take it easy and just make it a 180 tour. Ease off.

Edge: Well, there’s plenty of time for easing off, I don’t think we’re there yet.

Kevin: According to the report, you’re thinking early August?

Edge: Uh, yeah, I think it’ll be there. The doctor’s saying minimum eight weeks. I know Bono and we’re going to have to chain him down to stop him from getting back out there.

For the rest of the interview, listen below.

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