U2 recently announced the forthcoming release of their 16th studio album, Carnaval de Luz, and the first dates of their provocatively titled The Carnaval De Luz Presents: The Greatest Show On Earth world tour.
While the name of the tour is a very deliberate and knowing flex from the Dubliners - "It's a dare, to ourselves as much as anyone, to try and have the best night of anybody's life" they admit - it also speaks to the hunger and ambition of the Irish quartet as they celebrate their 50th year together.
In a new interview conducted with the New York Times, frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge both stress that they still have the desire to prove to themselves, and to the world at large, that U2 remain one of the world's great rock bands.
“We genuinely think that we might just write the best song we’ve ever written next week," insists The Edge, "or do the best show we’ve ever done next tour... That's why I'm still in this band."
"I’m jealous when suddenly we’re left out of the pop charts," Bono admits. "That’s a personality flaw, because, yeah, 66 and wants to storm the pop charts, somebody should throw some cold water over this fella.! But actually, deep down, it’s because I don’t want those ideas to be left out of the mainstream because my favourite artists stormed the mainstream."
“We’re still creatively extremely inspired and active," The Edge adds. "And there are lots of songs that have yet to be released and yet to be finished... So I can’t see that ending anytime soon."
In reference to the quartet's longevity as they gear up for another mammoth world tour, Bono predicts, "I think if we kept playing live, till we drop, there’ll be people."
"But we have one problem in this regard," he adds. "Which is, we pledged to each other when we were 18, 17, 16, whatever, that we would never, ever walk onto a stage without it being everything. And we haven’t betrayed that yet. We’ve had physical fistfights on stage. We’ve had them backstage. We’ve had madness. But we’ve never betrayed that.
"It never was entertainment to us, ever," The Edge agrees. "It was always something with a lot more importance and meaning."
"It’s the thing that they [specifically legendary Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly] said about football," Bono says in conclusion. "They can say it about music. Which it’s not a matter of life and death, it’s something much more serious than that.”
Watch the NYT interview in full below.
Carnaval de Luz, the follow-up to 2023's Songs Of Surrender will be released on November 15, and is available to pre-order now.
Deluxe editions will include physical copies of the digital EPs U2 released earlier this year, Days Of Ash and Easter Lily. Customers placing orders at the UK store will receive a ticket pre-sale code for UK dates, which are expected to be announced shortly.
