Bono says he may never play the guitar again because he can totally play the guitar. “Really I can,” Bono has probably said at some point. He’s not just a voice with sunglasses, you know. The U2 frontman’s reason for potentially putting down the guitar for good is actually a painful one: A bike accident in New York’s Central Park required a five-hour operation that left his arm cobbled together with three metal plates and 18 screws.
“Recovery has been more difficult than I thought … As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again,” Bono wrote in a blog post on the band’s website. “The band have reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this.” Here’s more Bono on his injury:
On the day of my 50th birthday I received an injury because I was over indulging in exercise boxing and cycling, which was itself an overcompensation for overindulging on alcohol coming up to the big birthday. I promised myself I would be more mindful of my limits, but just four years on, it happened again - a massive injury I can’t blame on anyone but myself, mainly because I blanked out on impact and have no memory of how I ended up in New York Presbyterian with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket. Very punk rock as injuries go.
I’m not sure a cycling accident in Central Park is all that rock ’n’ roll, but the injury sounds painful nonetheless.
