Bono Says Ed Sheeran Asked U2 Not to Involve Him in Politics While Collaborating on ‘Yours Eternally’

Bono addressed the controversy surrounding Ed Sheeran’s Loop tour and the dropping of rapper Macklemore during an interview with Rolling Stone UK. Asked about Macklemore chanting “Free Palestine” during two opening slots on the North American leg and the subsequent fallout, Bono said an official statement from Sheeran aligned with his own stance while recording “Yours Eternally” with U2 for the surprise Days of Ash EP released this year.

“I would say with Ed and Macklemore that we shouldn’t personalize this, what’s going on,” Bono said of Macklemore’s statements, which led to other opening acts and Sheeran’s onstage backing band leaving the tour. “[Producer] Brian Eno said today that pop stars are like little fish in a large sea of huge forces and religion and politics… And so I don’t want to dwell on Ed and Macklemore and that incident.”

After calls for Macklemore’s removal grew intense, Sheeran issued a statement saying he was “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and the suffering on both sides. Sheeran stated that removing Macklemore was the promoter’s decision rather than his own, made after he spoke with hosting venues in an attempt to build a bridge.

Sheeran noted that his shows aim to unite people in unity, joy, escapism, and love, adding, “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

That decision to let his music communicate matches Bono’s experience collaborating with Sheeran on “Yours Eternally.” The track features Ukrainian soldier-turned-musician Tara Topolia and was written from the perspective of an active-duty soldier on war front lines.

Bono recalled that Sheeran asked him, “You’re not going to get me into politics, are you?” Bono replied to the magazine that he told him, “This soldier who inspired us, he loved you Ed, and you’ve worked on this song,” prompting Sheeran to answer, “Yeah, but I just want to keep my thing free.”

The U2 frontman and human rights campaigner stated that people cannot be pushed around. Drummer Larren Mullen Jr. added that artists can choose whether they want to be involved and are entitled to that choice, noting it is not anyone’s job to criticize that decision regardless of personal feelings.

Calling the choice to weigh in complicated, Bono emphasized that while the band believes everyone deserves an opinion, he has no patience for billionaires exercising influence to suppress speech they oppose. This appeared to reference New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who helped lead efforts to remove Macklemore from Sheeran’s tour.

“We are absolutely clear about promoters or billionaire owners and the idea that they could have some influence on what you say or what you do on a stage,” Mullen Jr. stated. “We’ve talked about this, and [if] you applied that logic to U2, we would have been out of business on ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday,’” referencing the opening track of the band’s 1983 album War, which addressed the Troubles in Northern Ireland as one of their most explicitly political songs.