It really is pretty understandable.  At least some of the time.  I mean, everyone has one of those days where everything they say comes out wrong, and they just can’t seem to get things right.  The problem is some people have those moments more often than others.  Some people have those moments all the time.

If it’s you or me, then it’s not really a problem.  If you happen to be a celebrity that is recognized by as much as a sixth of the planet, it’s probably one of the most terrible problems you can be faced with.  Foot-in-mouth disease.  Ask Vice-President Joe Biden, there comes a certain point where people just stop paying attention when you screw up, because half of what you say is either a misstatement or just doesn’t make any sense.  It actually ends up working as a kind of insurance.  You’ve paid so much you can say anything and still be covered.

It’s not actually that bad for Bono.  And if I need to explain that he’s the lead singer of U2, one of the most influential bands (for good or for ill) of the last 30 years, it’s clear you aren’t one of the previously mentioned billion people that have heard of him.  He really isn’t as clumsy or as prone to gaffe as I make it sound in the initial paragraph, but he is prone to error.  In fact, he’s so prone to error that he’s commented on it himself during shows.  After performing a (rather rough) cover of the song “C’mon Everybody” on the first leg of the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987, Bono exclaimed to the audience that it was “another classic trashed by U2.”

He often misquotes lyrics, and if you search the bootleg community you can find multiple examples of Bono coming in at the wrong times, too early or too late.  The personas he adopts are often campy and flamboyant, and he has a habit of writing to the idea rather than letting the idea come from the writing (something many, many artists are guilty of).  But these reasons aren’t the reasons why people hate Bono.  People hate Bono for far more basic reasons than the ones I have outlined here.  Is Bono Hate justified?  Or at the very least, is there anything other than the few minor infractions listed here that could be used to justify Bono Hate?

In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably let you know that I am obsessed with U2 and, by default, Bono.  Now, this doesn’t preclude me from being able to make a rational and reasonable judgment about their abilities as a band or their individual characteristics; however, it does mean that most of the time I won’t be rational or reasonable by choice.  So, I guess you’ve got to trust that I’m having one of my rational and reasonable days.  I will, to the very best of my abilities, make sure that I don’t let the crushing weight of the love that I have for U2 taint my otherwise pithy and prudent prose.  The point of this whole exercise is to convince those on the fence, and ever perhaps a few on the other side of it, that Bono should not be considered, for lack of a better phrase, a douche bag.

To read the next part of this Apologia Pro Vita Bono, click here!