U2 frontman Bono on the "genius" musician he views as an "exorcist"

U2 onstage — (Image credit: Joseph Okpako/Redferns)

On their 1988 album Rattle And Hum, a companion piece to the film of the same name which documented their Joshua Tree tour in America, U2 tipped a (cowboy) hat to some of the blues, roots and folk music legends who helped pave the way for the emergence of rock n' roll, and, by extension, their own existence.

The live performance of All Along The Watchtower included on the record was obviously intended as a tribute to the songwriting genius of Bob Dylan (who collaborated with the Dublin quartet elsewhere on the album, on a track titled Love Rescue Me), but was also a 'thank you' note to Jimi Hendrix, who memorably covered the song on the third Jimi Hendrix Experience album, 1968's Electric Ladyland. Rattle And Hum also features a snippet of Hendrix's iconic take on The Star Spangled Banner.

The legendary guitarist might not seem like an obvious influence on U2, but in a 1988 interview with British fashion and culture magazine The Face, the band's frontman Bono spoke of the impact and resonance Hendrix's music had upon his adolescence.

"I grew up listening to progressive rock," he told writer Max Bell. "My brother Norman - Normal we call him - had Cream and Jimi Hendrix. I loved that abandonment in Hendrix.

"When you're young you've got all this violence in you, and that music released it for me. You hate everything then, right? But you've also a real love inside you that you won't own up to. I liked Pete Townshend too; whatever it was he was searching for, I'm looking for it now."

In 1995, Bono also paid tribute to Hendrix during an interview for a US TV series titled The History Of Rock & Roll.

"U2 is not a punk band," he stated, "but there's this kind of violence present in our music... I really relate to that side of rock 'n' roll and Jimi Hendrix. Again, he had this role of exorcist. He put Vietnam into that amplifier and just put so much into that guitar. So much came out of him. He's the great instrumental genius of rock 'n' roll."

When the interviewer referenced the deaths of Hendrix, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, and John Lennon, Bono responded by saying that he always "felt very angry" about the loss of such great musicians, adding, I just wonder about the records they were about to make or could have made... especially Jimi Hendrix."

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.