U2’s Bono says the group’s earlier music makes him ‘cringe a little bit’

U2’s Bono is not the biggest fan of the group’s old stuff – or even its name. The lead singer of the Irish rock band made the proclamation in The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast recently, which he did with group guitarist, The Edge.

“I’m just embarrassed. I do think U2 pushes out the boat on embarrassment a lot,” he said in the interview.

Bono said that he’s been in the car when one of their songs come on the radio, “and I’ve been the colour of – as we say in Dublin – scarlet”.

The 61-year-old said he’s most proud of the song Vertigo, taken from the 2004 album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, but “most of the others make me cringe a little bit”.

The rocker explained that it was difficult to listen to the band's earlier songs because of his “strained” vocals, which The Edge reasoned was because the songs were written to be performed live in small venues. 

Bono related an anecdote involving singer Robert Palmer, who met U2 bassist Adam Clayton in the 1980s and told him: “God, would you ever tell your singer to just take down the keys a little bit, he’d do himself a favour, do his voice a favour and he’d do us all a favour who have to listen to him”.

The group’s latest release, Your Song Saved My Life, has been shortlisted for the best original song Oscar, while Bono voices the character of Clay Calloway in the film from which the song is taken, Sing 2.

When the conversation moved to the band’s name, The Edge explained that while it didn’t jump out to them as the name they were looking for, “it was the one that we hated the least”.

He added, “It was the one we chose and we didn’t really love it at first”, to which Bono responded, “I still don’t. I really don’t”.

We guess it’s true what they say – you are your own worst critic.