It’s fascinating how music becomes part of one’s life journey. I’ve always been amazed out a song can conjure up a specific moment in time. U2 came to fame during my college years and their music became intertwined with so many memories of my journey into adulthood.

There are three distinct and indelible memories I associate with U2.

SCENE 1
Fred Thompson’s car. It was my freshman year of college. He introduced me to this Irish band who, he said, is going to be the next big thing. It was the War album. Fred was a senior and told me he was an aficionado of a well-played guitar. The Edge, he told me, was unlike anything anyone had ever heard before. He made me listen. In my memory, Fred will always be a musical prophet. The next year came The Joshua Tree and U2 became the biggest rock group on the planet.

SCENE 2
I had a great college friend who was rabid about both rock music and conservative politics. Initially high on U2’s early albums, he quickly soured on them when The Unforgettable Fire and then Rattle and Hum failed to march lock-step in line with his political world-view. I endured several ranting diatribes about U2’s heretical liberalism. Interestingly, I also fell out of favor with my friend. I personally found that the questions U2 were asking in their music to be more intensely personal and spiritually honest than a rock group making dogmatic diatribes.

SCENE 3
I was just out of college and working as a youth leader at a small town Baptist church in Iowa. The movie Rattle and Hum was playing in Des Moines and I scheduled a trip to Des Moines for any kids who wanted to go see it on the big screen. I had to endure a grilling from strict parents who were afraid of me taking their impressionable teens to a “rock and roll” movie. I was surprising successful, in retrospect, and I think U2 made some young fans that day.

For the record, I listened to the audiobook of Bono’s autobiography, Surrender based on a recommendation of a good friend. Bono narrates the book himself and adds sound effects and music clips to make it a larger more of a multi-media experience than your basic audiobook. He also does voice impersonations of people and it’s hilarious. Bono reads the book so conversationally that it made if feel as if he was simply telling me his story over a pint. I recommend it.

I found Surrender to be a humble and transparent telling of Bono’s story (and U2’s story). He doesn’t shy away from confessing the tragic flaws of his stubbornness, his passions, and his ego. At the same time, I appreciated him peeling back the curtain on his rabid, faith-fueled compulsion to make a difference in this world. I felt no soap-box virtue signaling. He just shares his heart, and I found myself continually shaking my head with respect. Bono has continuously channeled his wealth and privilege into a tireless effort to make a difference for the poorest and most marginalized people in the world. I confess that I was unaware of just how much Bono has accomplished on the world’s political stage and the personal sacrifices he’s made to do so.

For me, the most pleasantly enjoyable part of the book was the fact that Bono has seemingly met and befriended the most strange and broadly diverse group of people imaginable. I thoroughly loved listening as he regaled with anecdotes about Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Prince, Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Johnny and June Carter-Cash, and others.

Then, of course, there is the overarching story of U2. Four teen lads from Dublin who have somehow managed to survive stardom, push the envelope, remain together, and continue making chart-topping music despite their stark differences in personality, their individual tragedies, and the outside pressures that become the doom of most rock-and-roll bands. Surrender is certainly Bono’s take, but I couldn’t help but sense that he was speaking for the group in the same way he’s always been the voice of U2.

Surrender is probably not going to appeal as much to those who are unfamiliar with Bono or with U2. Even then, I would recommend it as the rare story of a rock-and-roll superstar who has doggedly endeavored to be faithful to his family, his faith, and his band mates while audaciously trying to make a difference in this world.