Bono has shared a trailer for his upcoming Apple TV+ documentary Songs Of Surrender, which comes out at the end of May.
The doc is essentially a TV version of the live events the U2 singer embarked upon to promote his 2022 memoir, Surrender. And in typical Bono-style it comes with a nicely-honed, slightly self-deprecating quip. Two, in fact.
“These are the tall tales of a short rock star,” he says by way of an introduction. “This is my story, I’m stuck with it.”
If you’re a fan, you’ll already know that the memoir tells the singer’s story through 40 of U2’s songs. In the live show, Bono mixes these songs with personal reflections and reminiscences from his long career.
It also sees him open up about a formative event in his life – when he lost his mother at the age of 14. “Last time I saw my mother alive,” he says, “was at her own father’s funeral. It sounds almost too Irish, I know. My father’s response to this tragedy was to never speak of her again.”
The singer also talks candidly about his relationships with those that are closest to him: “Turns out, the most extraordinary thing about my life is the people I’m in relationships with. I met my wife, Ali, the same week I joined U2.”
The doc features unseen footage of Bono’s April 2023 residency at New York’s Beacon Theatre and for the techies out there there is a version of the doc in Apple Immersive Video. And that – as you might have guessed – is a version where by it feels as if you are really in the room with Bono telling you his ‘tall tales’, even though you’re actually not.
Anyway, Bono: Songs Of Surrender lands on Apple TV+ on May 30, the same day as a paperback edition of the Surrender memoir, with a new introduction, hits the bookstores.
