Pete The Chop

Bono admits he's started smoking cigarettes due to his back surgery. The rock legend blames his painful, often boring back surgery. Can Bono quit again?

Bono has restored his health since his recent back surgery that had him out of the music world for over two months. The U2 frontman missed out on their North American tour and Glastonbury Festival, but he's back and ready to rock.

'That's in the past now and I'm very much fit for the future. This band is like a family. I am the prodigal son. I would like to thank my brothers for their patience.'

With so much time on his hands, Bono not only took up smoking, but took time to write and enjoy delicious ice cream.

'One of the things you can do when you're lying down like that is to write, so I wrote. Lying motionless I also had time to think about the future, because I never think about the past. The other thing I did was to eat ice cream and I also started smoking again.'

A doctor told Bono to quit smoking in 90's due to a bad sinus infection. He started smoking again in 2003 and stopped until recently.

Even with his renewed smoking habit, Bono is still amazingly awesome. We can't help, but love him.

Terra USA/Marilyn Dominguez

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Tags: Bono, Miscellaneous News, bonosbackinjury, glastonbury, miscellaneousnews by Jonathan
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By the Daily Mail

If he's not careful, hard-bitten actor and director Sean Penn will earn himself a reuptation for being a lightweight.

He celebrated his 50th birthday with a lunch in Dublin with local boy Bono but skipped out of proceedings after a mere two hours.

However, in true Irish fashion, his U2 frontman friend felt able to carry on the revelries, emerging from the restaurant an impressive six hours later.

The duo were enjoying lunch together at Marco Pierre White's Steakhouse and Grill in Dublin, ahead of the actor's landmark birthday tomorrow.

However, when Penn emerged he didn't look like he was celebrating much at all, with his head down and a scowl on his face.

Bono was a different matter though.

When the U2 frontman left it was night time and he looked a little worse for wear as he clung onto a lamp post at one point for some much needed support.

It seems it was a weekend of celebrating - the night before Bono had organized a party for Penn at Samsara Bar.

Penn's teenage son Hopper and daughter Dylan, Bono's daughter Eve Hewson and actor Kris Kristofferson were amongst the guests.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the party carried on to O'Donohue's pub on Dublin's Merrion Row, where Penn and Bono had a singsong with music legends Finbar Furey and Barney McKenna.

According to a source: 'It was brilliant. All the old Ronnie Drew classics were sung....everyone sang a song or two, including Bono.'

Penn is currently in Dublin filming This Must Be The Place, in which he plays an aging rock star who becomes fixated with pursuing the Nazi criminal that tormented his father.

The movie also stars Bono's daughter Eve, who plays a gothic-punk music fan.

© Associated Newspapers Ltd

Tags: Bono, Miscellaneous News, dublin, miscellaneousnews, seanpenn by Jonathan
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by John D. Luerssen, Spinner

Although the Sex Pistols were a significant early influence on U2, frontman John Lydon could care less. The notoriously contentious Rotten -- aka Johnny Rotten -- thinks that Bono and the boys have no business making music.

"U2 -- that's a band that never should have existed," Lydon snapped during an interview with the Daily Star. "There's no life experience in any of their songs."

Lydon made the remarks during efforts to publicize the return of Public Image Ltd., his post-Pistols band. The PiL mastermind also explained he was "astounded" by the fact that his experimental post-punk troupe hasn't been inundated with bids to play the many European summer festivals.

"We haven't had any offers," Lydon moped. "They have been quite negative, which has astounded us because PiL is the perfect festival band."

Spinner.com © 2010 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Tags: Miscellaneous News, miscellaneousnews, sexpistols by Jonathan
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By Cahir O'Doherty, Irish Central

Just weeks after his emergency surgery, Bono is recovering at his luxury villa in the French Riviera - with a little help from friends, including bike racer Lance Armstrong.

Whilst the north American part of U2's tour is on hold, Bono spends his days meeting pals for lunch in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat restaurant (he drove himself there).

'Lunch with an old friend,' Armstrong tweeted on Thursday, posting a photo of himself with the Irish rocker in front of a very scenic backdrop.

Bono, who is still looking quite tired, is pictured holding a wine glass and has his arm around Lance's pregnant girlfriend, Anna Hansen, while Lance holds their son, Max.

The Irish rock star, who was released from a Munich hospital on May 25, has to spend at least eight weeks doing physical rehabilitation, which has put the skids on the North American leg of U2's 360 world tour. The dates will be rescheduled for 2011.

In 2009, U2's tour grossed just shy of $110 million, making it the year's most profitable show.

Tags: Miscellaneous News, bonosbackinjury, lancearmstrong, miscellaneousnews, u2360tour by Jonathan
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An American in Ireland, by The Yank, Irish Central

Bono might be returning home to recover after his back surgery, but rest might be harder to come by.

I have sympathy for Bono, suffering with his bad back. I'm sure if I was 20 or so my reaction to Bono's injury would be something along the lines of, "What's that old guy doing anyway, trying to behave like a young rock star. He's lucky he can still stand at the microphone." But, I'm in my mid 40s and can fully understand why Bono doesn't want to give up yet. Who wants to be old?

The media says Bono will do his recuperating in his home on Killiney Hill in south County Dublin. What better place? It's beautiful there. Tremendous views looking out over Killiney Bay from Bray to Dalkey and Dalkey Island {photo}, with its medieval church and 19th century Martello Tower.

I went for a walk in that neighborhood earlier in the week . It's just a perfect place. So quiet that the predominant sounds are the birds in the trees and the sea crashing off the rocks below. And, at the moment many of the roads around Bono's house are closed to traffic due a to a rock slide in the area, making it seem even more secluded.

If you have to recover from serious surgery, Killiney Hill is probably about as good any place I can think of. Except for Bono's house right now.

Bono was clearly not anticipating spending a lot of time at home over the next few months, what with his hectic tour schedule (the tour he was training for when he got hurt). He was probably figuring he wouldn't be home much before Christmas. His wife and children probably arranged to be away a lot too.

Why do I think that? Because Bono, as as a lot of people would do, decided to get some work done around the place while he was away. From the looks of it, he's getting a lot of work done. From what I could see his house is one big building site. I'm not certain, but I think Bono and his wife must be getting a whole new top floor. The house suddenly seems a lot more visible than it used to be and there's scaffolding all around the top.

Oh, and there's a huge crane looming over the house, doing the things cranes do, making the noises cranes make. And based on the number of what looked like workmen's cars parked on the road outside Bono's gate I would guess his house is crawling with workers too.

Will they leave him alone? Probably will, actually. That's how Irish people generally are. Still, life in a building site is hardly going to be stress free. I don't care who you are or how much money you have, the sound of things crashing around, the sight of workmen spilling cups of coffee or bags of cement in your house is hardly the recipe for a restful recovery. Bono might do well to reconsider coming home to get over his surgery.

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Tags: Miscellaneous News, bonosbackinjury, dublin, miscellaneousnews by Jonathan
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