BONO WANTS MORE

THE U2 FRONTMAN SPENT THE PAST FEW YEARS REEXAMINING HIS LIFE AND CAREER. NOW HE'S BACK WITH NEW PROJECTS, NEW MUSIC— AND A FRESH SENSE OF URGENCY TO CHANGE THE WORLD.

- MADISON VAIN

Jacket by Dries Van Noten; sunglasses and jewelry, Bono's own.

W. B. YEATS WAS BURIED JUST DOWN THE ROAD,” SAYS Bono near the end of our first afternoon together, name-checking the famed Irish poet. It’s early April and the U2 singer is walking me up the driveway of his vacation estate in the South of France, toward my waiting car. Behind us, the Mediterranean Sea fills the horizon, blue as far as the eye can see. His property stretches before us. A few houses. Couple of pools. It’s blissfully private, even if the glitz of Monaco and Cannes isn’t too far away. Bono is not the first Irishman to trade the dampness of his home country for the sunny shores of the Côte d’Azur—but he might be doing it better than the rest.

Bono shares the property with his bandmate the Edge. In the early nineties, they were driving by while on vacation with the other two members of the band when they noticed the grounds and stopped to take a look. Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton, the drummer and bassist who complete the legendary U2 lineup, wouldn’t even get out of the car. Owning such a place would be too much work, they said, way too much upkeep. But the frontman and guitarist couldn’t resist splurging. U2 was fresh off a ten-year stretch that saw the group go from buzzy new post-punk experiment to stadium-sized rock act, selling more than 70 million albums along the way. Which is to say, they could afford it.

It has indeed required a lot of work. Buildings have been added to accommodate their growing families over the years. On this day, one of the structures is wrapped in scaffolding and one of the pools has been drained. It’s part of the work to get ready for summer. But the idyllic hideaway has given more to Bono and his band than it has taken.