Sunday Mirror, May 20, 2008
By Seamus Ross
Controversial author Salman Rushdie has claimed his old pals U2 are among the most subdued rockers in the world.
Rushdie, who hid out in a cottage in lead singer Bono's back garden after receiving death threats for publishing The Satanic Verses, became friends with the group in the 1990s.
Now the world-famous author has given a rare insight into life backstage with the world's biggest rock band.
He revealed: "Backstage at U2 concerts there are no groupies, just creches. They're not at all rock and roll.
"Bono and the Edge are serious people, not just in it for the laughs.
Bono and the Edge even turned the words to his poem "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" into a song for the band. And in 1993, U2 invited Rushdie onstage with them during a concert in Wembley Stadium.
Back then Bono was in his McPhisto stage, complete with fake devil's horns on his head.
At that stage Rushdie had a serious death threat against him, issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini, then supreme leader of Iran.
The Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses was murdered, the Italian translator stabbed in 1991 and the Norwegian publisher almost killed in 1993.
Before Rushdie's threat was lifted, he secretly stayed with Bono at his home in Dalkey, south Co. Dublin, dining with the Hewson family at night while under round-the-clock protection from bodyguards.
© Sunday Mirror, 2008.
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