Bono Vox

Bono was born under the real name of Paul Hewson on the 10th of May, 1960, just 4 days after the "U2" incident *. Bobby and Iris were his parents and there was also 7 year-old Norman.

Born and bred in Dublin, he lived in Ballymun, a nice area of Dublin. His parents were of two different religions, Iris was Protestant, Bobby was Catholic. Bono often talks about the weirdness of growing up in between the two religions of Ireland. Bono went with his mother to church, not to the Catholic, and more accepted, Church of his dad.

Iris died on September 10th, 1974. Bono would always be affected by her loss as his "home was no longer a home, just a house", and he would later write songs about it, most notably Tomorrow.

Bono, his dad and Norman didn't get along real well. Bono started hanging out with Fionan Hanvey, aka Gavin Friday, and the Village. (Sometimes called Lypton Village) The Village was a group of kids trying to rebel against the norm. They gave each other nicknames. Paul Hewson became "Bono Vox", named after a hearing aid store, and which also means "Perfect Voice" in Latin. Ironic again. Anyway, Fionan/Gavin with the rest of the Village formed the Virgin Prunes with whom Bono sometimes sang.

Bono answered Larry's note. When they were forming *, Bono "was the lead guitar player, singer, songwriter. Nobody talked back at first. But then they talked me out of being lead guitar player into being rhythm guitar player. And then they talked me out of being the rhythm guitar player and into being just the singer. And then they tried to talk me out of being the singer and into being the manager. But I held onto that. Arrogance may have been the reason." Now, Bono is "almost always on guitar" that being the acoustic and occasional electric. (But you see, Bono has a slight problem with the guitar because "it has 6 strings and he only has 5 fingers"). Bono also is a major collector of guitars, or so says Edge. As the lead singer, Bono was the one who would make the connection with the audience by reaching out, looking into their eyes, reving them up, etc.. He would often do weird stunts on stage, wheather it be climbing huge scaffolding or waving white flags to catch the audiences' attention and keep it on the band. It could be said that Bono's antics and stage prescence is a large part of what propelled U2 into the spotlight and has kept it there for so long.

People always ask "What about drugs". Well, there have been unconfirmed (and extrememly shady) reports of heroin use. What about Bad and Running to Stand Still. Nothing has ever been confirmed, most are rumors and ump-teenth generation reports. Aside from heroin, the boys drink rather heavily upon occassion like Nighttown and ZooTV. Bono smokes cigars and cigarettes, but he "doesn't inhale". Right :-). And he only started getting into it recently. Weird.

The rest you probably know. He married Alison Stewert in August of 82. They have two girls, Jordan and Eve. Jordan was born on Bono's birthday - May 10th, 1989, and Eve was born July 7th, 1991.

Bono has gotten his song for Frank Sinatra out in the open. In Frank's 80th Birthday bash "Two Shots Of Happy (One Shot of Sad)" was unveiled with Edge on the guitar and an orchestra accompanying him.

Bono also wrote Miss Sarajevo with Luciano Pavarotti assisting on vocals. Bono, Edge, Eno and "Pav" performed live in Modena this past year. The proceeds of the Miss Sarajevo single go to Warchild, an organization that aids the children of Bosnia.


In Mars 1997, Bono finally signed a contract to become a movie star. Bono had already refused contracts to appear on the big screen, looks like he claimed it was got something to do with his image.

Last Updated: May 30, 1997.
*Última Actualização: 30 de Maio de 1997.