Music journalist Steve Beard, host of thunderstruck.org, co-authored the new book Spiritual Journeys, writing chapters about Bono and Johnny Cash. He was recently interviewed by Debbie Kreuser of U2 fansite Interference about both men as well as his pop-culture website Thunderstruck.

Given that Interference is a U2 site, most of the interview is spent discussing Bono. Beard offers this brief description of Bono's uniqueness in pop culture:

Bono is rock 'n' roll's most effective and enigmatic spiritual provocateur. He sees every stage as a pulpit and every coliseum as a cathedral. Who else talks to rock journalists about the theological superiority of grace over karma, writes the forward to a specially-packaged book of Psalms, convinces Sen. Jesse Helms to help African AIDS victims, and use his time on national television to pray the Scriptures?

He makes pitches for the Bible, gets nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and then makes news for getting pardoned by the FCC for using the F-word on television, he is a walking contradiction.

When asked if he saw similarities between Bono and Johnny Cash, Beard gave an interesting perspective on Cash's appearance as a vocalist on U2's Zooropa:

There is a very good reason that Johnny Cash performed on the Zooropa album. He served symbolically as a limping priest, one who had gone through his own personal hell with fame and fortune and could be empathetic to fellow travelers who were wandering in their own desert. He was viewed as an authority figure that had the weight of a moral anchor in a tumultuous sea.

Posted by JohnH at November 10, 2003 10:50 AM | TrackBack