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U2 Tour Costs $750K a Day
Bono and the boys talk pop stardom, expansive tour with Rolling Stone
By Evann Gastaldo
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Posted Sep 30, 09 11:17 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Rolling Stone goes behind the scenes—and tags along in a private jet—for its cover story on the U2360° Tour (aka “the biggest rock tour of all time”), which is comprised of a 170-ton stage carted around by 200 trucks, 250 speakers, almost 400 employees—and $750,000 a day in overhead costs. The band is eager to “engage and try and do something different,” says Edge.
But it’s not all about the tour: Bono also discusses rock stardom in 2009, calling Jay-Z “a pioneer” who is helping to create a “porous culture, where there’s much more crosstown traffic.” He goes on to speculate, “In this age of celebrity and pop stardom, maybe it’s a sensible thing to question the values of being a pop star. Radiohead, Pearl Jam, a lot of people, who maybe had more sense than us, rejected it.”