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“I think music has gotten very girly. And there are some good things about that, but hip-hop is the only place for young male anger at the moment — and that’s not good,” he said.
Bono — who said the idea of a rock ‘n’ roll revolution was first suggested by his son, Elijah — added that music helped him escape his own rage as a kid.
“When I was 16, I had a lot of anger in me. You need to find a place for it and for guitars, whether it is with a drum machine — I don’t care. The moment something becomes preserved, it is f — king over,” he said. “You might as well put it in formaldehyde. In the end, what is rock & roll? Rage is at the heart of it.”
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The Irish rocker, 57, also alluded to a near-death experience, though he chose not to elaborate, instead simply calling it an “extinction event.”
“People have these extinction events in their lives; it could be psychological or it could be physical. And, yes, it was physical for me, but I think I have spared myself all that soap opera,” he said.
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