YEAR
2005
INDUCTED BY
Bruce Springsteen
CATEGORY
Performers
Philanthropic. Hopeful. Committed. U2 are proof of the power of music.
While U2 have experimented and evolved musically throughout their career, the core members and their commitment to positive change have remained steady.
Bono
Adam Clayton
The Edge
Larry Mullen Jr.
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By James Henke
Back in 1985, when I was the music editor of Rolling Stone, I convinced Jann Wenner to put U2 on the cover.
It took some doing. I had first met U2 some five years earlier, when I was one of a handful of American journalists sent to England to see the band shortly after the U.K. release of its first album, Boy. I rode in a van with the band members – then barely in their twenties – from London to Coventry for their gig at a university gymnasium.
The show totally knocked me out, and I came back convinced that U2 was going to be, as the headline of my story put it, “the next big thing.” From that day on, I was constantly championing the band around Rolling Stone. When Jann finally gave in and let me put it on the cover, our headline boldly declared: our choice: BAND OF THE EIGHTIES.
