In the News: The Pride/Bono Death Threat Story

Ages ago, during the writing and researching of U2-A Diary, I put out a call for help on this blog with this post: When Did Adam Stand in Front of Bono during ‘Pride’? Sadly, I never did get enough solid information about that question and had to leave it out of the book.

Now, out of nowhere, the Arizona Republic has published an article that basically asks the same question: When did this happen? But unlike my rushed attempt to get answers, reporter Richard Ruelas did some digging with concert promoters, local law enforcement officials, and even the FBI. The results?

Neither Tempe police nor Arizona State University police could find a report about the incident. The Phoenix office of the FBI also came up empty. Special Agent Manual Johnson, the FBI’s spokesman, said he was at those shows as a fan but could not locate any report of a threat.

Fey, the now-retired concert promoter who lives in Denver, said he did not recall ordering extra security for any of the four Tempe shows as a result of a threat.

Ruelas’ article is a great read, but it assumes, as many do, that the incident happened during the Joshua Tree tour. Heck, Bono even says so in the official book, U2 by U2. But 10 years earlier, in this interview with NME, Bono said it happened during the Unforgettable Fire tour.

And that was always one of the biggest challenges of researching and writing my book: U2’s stories often changed from telling to telling. Sometimes, like in this case, there’s almost no way to reconcile the different stories to find a definitive version of events.

So, for now at least, this one remains an unsolved mystery.