On May 10, 2020, Bono turned 60. And celebrated this by 60 separate fan letters to his musical heroes wrotefrom the Beatles and the Ramones to Beyoncé and Billie Eilish. “These are some of the songs that saved my life,” he wrote. “The one without whom I could not have lived. Those who got me here from there from zero to 60th through all difficulties, all possible annoyances, from serious to silly. And the joy, especially the joy.”
“I wanted to thank the artists and everyone who participated in their creation,” he continued. “You did the same for me. I write a fan for every song to explain my fascination.”
Note from the editorial team: Due to its uniqueness, we have retained the syntax, spelling and grammar of bonos machine -written letters instead of adapting them to the style of the Rolling Stone.
1. Luciano Pavarotti, Bono and Zucchero, “Miserere”
Dear Alice,
I haven’t seen you for ages … As always, I am a loyal but unreliable friend.
“Miserere” is one of my father’s favorite crescendos. We sang it live in Modena, but it is mainly known as a duet with one of my other favorite people, Zucchero …
It was Zucchero who asked me to write it with him. I can hardly remember what it was about … except for forgiveness … and a toast on life.
My father Bob was a tenor. He described me as “Bariton who thinks is a tenor!”
When I hear that, I miss my father as well as yours. He loved the opera … he was one himself.
You gave your father so much joy.
Grace,
Bono
PS During the demo recordings for your father, Zucchero discovered an unknown tenor who had just started … his name was Andrea Bocelli. His version stirs me to tears today for many reasons.
2. Sex pistols, “Anarchy in the UK”
Dear John, Steve, Paul, Sid and Glen,
I don’t think there has ever been a better rock’n’roll band.
The production of all your songs … incomparable.
That Chris Thomas knew how to use anger and turn into beauty … Well, I think he must have had something of it … good.
Steve Jones, you are the maximum minimalist and have never been exceeded with your pure, visceral rock’n’roll guitar.
This Johnny Rotten was something special, not true … In retrospect you were partly Richard III, partly variety, partly fortune teller, but always a truth -loving with a voice like a bagpipes that could have the armies marched into the battle … and that did so too. I couldn’t decide which side I was on, but then I realized that everything was dependent on what you loved and what you hated.
“The first line” I am Antichrist “… it was difficult to digest”
You sang with a mocking grin that was so English, and yet you are so Irish … like all four Beatles, like Elvis Costello, like Morrissey, like the Gallagher brothers, like Declan McKenna … The Irish can deal well with English words and music, and the English can handle us well.
The first line “I am Antichrist” … it was difficult to digest, but on the other hand my own family said the same thing about me …
Your fan,
Bono
3. Kanye West, “Black Skinhead”
Dear Kanye,
I was a hundred feet away from your feet … your eyes were closed so as not to let you distract you from the words you just wrote around the corner, but here you were and presented this song live on “Saturday Night Live” … and I am in the television studio to witness a piece of black story. It is May 18, 2013.
Your “black leather jeans on
Mine by all means
Sorry, I’m screaming
Enter the kingdom ”
It felt like hip-hop wanted the black leather jacket from rock ‘n’ roll back … and also the rock ‘n’ roll silhouette. And there you were. Your head like a ball in front of the yellow background of the supermarket with a shield on which “Not for Sale” stood. Words shot out of a bell -like mouth,, From the lips of a punk-tense, with dogs like wolves on a leash … flip, tongue drops, ku-klux nodes slide.
“I am your fan since you were on the Vertigo tour with us”
I was about to get a blow on the head musically, but I remember the smell of Bovver-Boat leather when it actually stamped me. I remembered white skinheads.
I remembered the feeling of being 15 … I watch a film noir, a horror film … I was in this film … but that night the spanking was held in my head, not on my head, it actually sounded like nothing that I had ever heard before. Terror’s soundtrack, but I was not afraid … I was relieved that someone was fearless.
I am your fan since you were traveling with us on the Vertigo tour again, once again fearless …
Bono
4. Billie Eilish, “Everything I Wanted”
Dear Billie (and Finneas),
My ears long for such empty rooms in which they can hike … to escape the dense digital surface with too much information … I immerse yourself in your song and he is a black beauty, painful, incredibly vulnerable and fearful, fearless and worrying … but not worries you all. You press it out so that you can claim the excruciating feeling for yourself.
I think of Carole King, I think of Roy Orbison.
But just like with them, there has never been it before you.
Your fan,
Bono
5. David Bowie, “Life on Mars?”
Dear Duncan,
When I was the song Life on Mars in 1973? Your father heard on the radio, I hid under my covers in Cedarwood Road 10 and heard a pirate station called Radio Caroline. I didn’t think about the question mark in the title … I didn’t deal with the dramatic question “Is there life on Mars?” … The song answered a much more important question than I was 13 … Is there intelligent life on earth? For me it was proof.
Thank you for shared your father with as many people as me that he fulfilled to the edge.
Your fan,
Bono