U2 frontman Bono on the priceless advice he was given by a hard rock, harder-drinking legend

U2's Bono receiving a knighthood in 2007. — (Image credit: ShowBizIreland/Getty Images)

You imagine that U2 frontman Bono has received a lot of decent advice over the years given that he regularly surrounds himself with people who are good at dishing it out from lofty positions, Presidents, politicians, fellow rock stars, actors, Noel Gallagher, folk like that. But some of the most memorable words of wisdom that the U2 man carries with him was passed on by none-other than the most-missed of rock’n’roll sages, Motörhead leader Lemmy.

As documented in the book, The 10 Commandments: The Rock Star’s Guide To Life, Bono was writing about the importance of how “A single transferable phrase is an essential and handy tool”, and Lemmy had given him one of the best.

“Lemmy, while musing pleasantly on this and that,” he wrote, “be it the injustice of the world, the horrors of war, or the perfidy of a man’s love for women, would shrug and say, ‘Oh, well, you can’t have everything, where would you put it?’. A phrase that works on every occasion is an invaluable exit strategy.”

The idea, Bono explained, was to have a go-to saying that worked “whether being harangued, bored, seduced, abused or adored” and he had received similarly enlightening words on the subject from Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. “Jarvis understood the problem at the molecular level,” he continued, “and offered, without missing a beat, ‘It’s a lot to take in, really’. He explained that this STP (Single Transferable Phrase) always cooled folks down or at least put them on a pause – whatever they were on about.”

It's not just people outside U2 that the singer has taken advice from, either. He described the band’s drummer Larry Mullen Jr. as their “oracle”. “Larry took me aside after a gig and told me he needed to tell me something extremely important,” he wrote. “He took my hand. Looked deeply into my eyes, and said, ‘Bono, question everything.’ I said, ‘Why?’.”

There you have it, three batches of wisdom, from three wise-ish men.

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Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, Champions Journal, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleague Ted Kessler. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he's interviewed some of the world's biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Radiohead, Liam and Noel Gallagher, Florence + The Machine, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more.