He says he cringes at his voice and he doesn’t like the name U2, at all.
Irish rock legends U2 have released 14 albums now, most of which have topped the charts around the world and yielded popular singles. That said, many thinkpieces (like this one, this one, and this one) have been devoted to exploring why the band is so polarizing or even hated. Heck, there are even key elements of the band that Bono himself isn’t in love with, like his own singing and the name “U2.”
As for the name “U2,” Bono said, “I still don’t [like it]. I really don’t. But I was late into some kind of dyslexia. I didn’t realize that The Beatles was a bad pun either. In our head it was like the spy plane, U-boat, it was futuristic — as it turned out to imply this kind of acquiescence, no I don’t like that name. I still don’t really like the name. Paul McGuinness, our first manager, did say, ‘Look, it’s a great name, it’s going to look good on a T-shirt, a letter and a number.’”
In a recent interview on the Awards Chatter podcast, Bono said that most of his recorded vocal performances on U2 songs make him cringe.
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