Bono dislikes U2's name and is "embarrassed" by his voice on most of their songs

18 January 2022, 18:56 | Updated: 1 October 2024, 15:11

The U2 frontman appeared on a podcast where he revealed he "still" doesn't like U2's band name and he turns off the radio when he hears himself sing.

Bono has said he hates U2's name and his voice on most of their music.

The Irish band might be have millions of fans across the globe, but their famous frontman isn't a fan of their name and is "embarrassed" when he listens back to himself in their earlier songs.

As reported by The Times, the Irish rocker recently appeared on Awards Chatter podcast where he talked about the band's career, discography and their famous moniker.

"I still don’t [like it]," he said of the band's name. "I really don’t. But I was late into some kind of dyslexia. I didn’t realise 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’."

READ MORE: Where did U2 get their name from?

Bono also revealed he goes "crimson" when listening to some of their songs on the radio, because he's only "recently" learned how to sing.

The One singer admitted: "I’ve been in the car when one of our songs has come on the radio and I’ve been the colour of, as we say in Dublin, scarlet. I’m just so embarrassed.”

He added: "But I was thinking out of my body. I wasn’t thinking about singing. I didn’t really think about changing keys. Did we ever change a key?”.

And it wasn't just his voice Bono took aim at either, revealing he found some of his lyrics cringe-worthy too.

He mused: "I do think U2 pushes out the boat on embarrassment quite a lot and maybe that’s the place to be as an artist, you know right at the edge of your level of embarrassment.

“And the lyrics as well, I feel that on Boy and other albums it was sketched out very unique and original material, but I don’t think I filled in the details, and I look back and I go ‘God’.”

Despite being so self-critical, Bono also revealed he's most proud of their 2004 song Vertigo, adding: "It’s the way it connects with the crowd.”

Bono plays new song from home for St. Patrick’s Day gig

READ MORE: How did Bono come up with his stage name?