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U2's Bono would rather rock than rule
Posted on Friday, July 05 @ 01:44:55 CEST by Macphisto
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DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish rock star Bono said on Thursday that music was his first love and that he had no interest in becoming a politician despite his work as a rights campaigner.
"Nothing comes close to the feeling of waking up with a melody in your head and having a band like U2 to help you capture it," the singer told Ireland's Hot Press magazine.
"Politicians don't turn me on, politics doesn't turn me on, the way music does. I have a lot more respect for them than I used to. They work a lot harder than I thought...but I don't want to be one."
The Dubliner has lobbied world leaders including French President Jacques Chirac to improve aid and debt forgiveness for poor countries and in May went on a high-profile 12-day trip through Africa with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, dubbed the "odd-couple tour."
Touted as a possible Irish presidential candidate, Bono said he had no interest in the job, a largely ceremonial position which usually attracts a wide-range of candidates from outside the political mainstream.
"I don't think I could live with the pay cut or moving to a smaller house," he said.
A participant in fellow Irishman Bob Geldof's 1985 Live Aid famine-relief concert, Bono has set up his own group called DATA (Debt, Aid, Trade for Africa), advocating economic aid, lower export tariffs and money to fight AIDS.
Renowned for his forthright personality, the 42-year old father of four said he was not getting mellower with age.
"I'm getting angrier and that's what makes me believe that with some smart thinking and simple changes to our lives, we can drastically improve the lives of so many other people."
Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, said U2 had been working on a follow-up album to the Grammy-winning "All That You Can't Leave Behind" since the end of their "Elevation" tour in December 2001 .
"We set up in a disused bar/nightclub in the South of France. Very punk rock and very like old clubs we used to play. Maybe it was being in that kind of venue, but the music we started to make was very lo-fi high energy."
"One of these songs might make it onto our new 'Best Of' which comes out later this year."
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