The Edge has opened up about his disappointment that bandmate Larry Mullen Jnr will miss playing Las Vegas shows – but he insisted U2 are not splitting up.
Drummer Mullen confirmed he will not join the band for their upcoming residency, which will take place this autumn at the new MSG Sphere venue, due to needing an op and will be replaced for it by Bram van den Berg. The Edge told the Telegraph: “No one is more disappointed than us that Larry won’t be joining us in Vegas.
“We made a commitment. In the history of U2, you can count the shows we’ve missed on the fingers of one hand. The people who are going to miss Larry the most, I think, will be Bono, Adam and myself.
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"It’ll be strange to turn around and not see him behind us after all these years. But the shows will be amazing.”
But The Edge insisted the band have an unbreakable bond and fans don’t need to worry about them ever breaking up. Posting on Twitter, journalist Neil McCormick shared further quotes that didn’t make it into the article, tackling the future of U2.
“So every time I think of quitting, I kind of reinvent U2,” The Edge says in one screenshot. We all know that we shine brighter by being in proximity to each other.
“That’s why it’s going to be very difficult to break up U2 – simply because it works so well for us all.” In other quotes shared by McCormick, the guitarist noted it wasn’t the first time the band had faced rumours they were breaking up and said the decision to perform in Vegas without Mullen was “very lengthy”.
The Edge said: “We haven’t been on the road since 2019. The U2 audience is such a phenomenal thing in our lives, doing these Vegas shows, even without Larry, felt like the right thing to do because it’s been so many years since we played.
“We just wanted to see them and be there. So it was a many-faceted decision but this was the right call, I’ve absolutely no doubt about it.
“And we very much look forward to the next time we can climb on stage with Larry as our drummer. We will miss him terribly. But I think it’s OK.”
The guitarist added that he has plenty of more material still to come too. He said: “I don’t think there’s any chance of the future drying up.
“I’ve been working on [other] new stuff in parallel that’s much more vital and requires a U2 band sound to fulfil it. The next album will be full of big electric guitars. I’m not sure U2 are going to turn into AC/DC exactly.
"I’ll still be trying to find ways to use the instrument that are new and unfamiliar. But I’m absolutely convinced that the guitar is going to be front and centre within mainstream music culture in a year or two, and I want to be part of that revival.”
Meanwhile, The Edge said he believes that while U2 frontman Bono can get too much flak, he admits that the outspoken singer does sometimes get even too much for him. He added: “Of course Bono gets too much for me sometimes!
“I’m sure I drive him mad, as well. If that wasn’t the case, I think we would be doing a disservice to each other, because it’s in the realm where we push each other, challenge each other, annoy the hell out of each other, that you know there’s something going on.
“If you never get to that place, dude, you don’t really have a proper creative relationship.”
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