The Editors of New Word City - Bono

Like many gifted leaders, Paul David Hewson is impatient - and doesnt hesitate to say so. He rails against the indifference of people who vanish down the corridors of bureaucracy and openly questions whether Americans, with their know-how... cash, and... life-saving drugs, also have sufficient will to fight the poverty, AIDS, and crushing debt that burden Third World countries, especially Africa. I didnt expect change to come so slow, he says wearily, so agonizingly slow.

As idealistic as Hewson is, he is no do-gooder who harangues passers-by at rush hour. Rather, he attracts millions of rapt listeners whenever he speaks - or sings - for Hewson is the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2. Known to his fans only by his stage name, Bono, the Dublin native has channeled his charisma and outspokenness into championing numerous humanitarian causes. But for all his efforts, Bono, as the lyrics of one of his songs declare, still hasnt found what hes looking for. Wheres John Lennon when you need him? he wondered aloud during a commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania.

As an entertainer turned activist, Bono may be Lennons offspring, but hes no clone. You would never find Bono staging a week-long bed-in for peace - as Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono did in 1969. Bono rarely rests. For example, just days before U2s performance before a worldwide audience of 100 million-plus at the Super Bowl, Bono accompanied Bill Gates to the World Economic Forum in New York. There he debated former Alcoa CEO and then-Treasury Secretary Paul ONeill about Third World debt.

A few months later, Bono accompanied ONeill on a ten-day African tour to Ethiopia, Ghana, South Africa, and Uganda. Capturing the traveling companions chemistry, Bono handed out T-shirts that read, The Odd Couple Tour of Africa. While visiting orphanages, AIDS clinics, and other humanitarian projects, Bono described ONeill as the man in charge of Americas wallet, which I want to open.... By the end of the tour, the odd couple had found common ground, with ONeill calling for increased aid to the continent.

The Treasury secretary later admitted his initial reluctance to have the wraparound-sunglass-wearing superstar as a sidekick. When my staff suggested that he should come and see me, I said, No, no, he just wants to use me, and so I put him off for a while, recalled ONeill. Then I let him come in for fifteen minutes. And in fifteen minutes, he convinced me he was real.

Bono cares deeply, and it shows. Making no secret of his deep-seated spirituality, he comes off as being much more serious than the typical celebrity who latches onto a fashionable cause just for the publicity. The rockers authenticity has given him unequaled status as a global political activist who just happens to be a superstar.

A three-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, Bono was named Time magazines person of the year in 2005, an honor he shared with Bill and Melinda Gates. In 2007, Queen Elizabeth made him an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Dont call him Sir, though. Thats a tribute reserved for the Queens subjects, which citizens of the Republic of Ireland definitely are not. Joking with reporters, Bono suggested that lord of lords or your demigodness would be acceptable substitutes.

No dilettante, Bono is used to mixing it up with world leaders. He met in Rome with Pope John Paul II, whom he called a street fighter... on behalf of the worlds poor, dropped in on G8 leaders at their annual summits held around the world, and visited President George W. Bush in the White House more than once. He also co-founded a nonprofit advocacy group called DATA (an awkward acronym for Debt, AIDS, and Trade for Africa), and in his spare time, hes the front man for a band that has sold hundreds of millions of songs, won twenty-two Grammy Awards, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He is shrewd, too, never missing a chance to enlist others to join him in tackling some of the planets most intractable problems. The challenge, as he wrote in his foreword to The End of Poverty, a bestseller by economist Jeffrey Sachs, is this: We can be the generation that no longer accepts that an accident of latitude determines whether a child lives or dies. But will we be that generation?

Bono may dress like a rock star in black leather jacket, jeans, and T-shirts, but his leadership style is as smart, determined, and successful as any pin-striped businessperson.

Bono displayed an ability to attract notice almost immediately upon his arrival in May 1960. A colicky baby who grew into a difficult child, his antics earned him the nickname Antichrist. What on earth could a small boy do to earn such a sobriquet? Well, among other shenanigans, he got booted from grammar school after flinging dog waste at his teacher.

Bonos energy wasnt entirely devoted to destructive purposes, however. He was such a skilled chess player by the time he was twelve that he entered an international competition. He was also a talented artist and keenly interested in music. His older brother, Norman, a guitar player, shared Bonos interest in the Beatles, the Who, and other popular groups. Oddly enough, though, Bonos parents discouraged him from getting formal training. When his grandmother died, he pleaded to keep her piano, but his parents sold it instead. In later years, the superstar theorized that his anger over their low regard for his talent fueled his mighty aspirations.

By the time Bono was a teenager, he had plenty to be angry about. He was just fourteen when his grandfather suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep. Then, at the funeral, his mother suffered a fatal brain hemorrhage. His sense of injustice, which would inflame his adult activism, was acted out in various ways as a youngster. A fight with his brother escalated into a knife-throwing incident, for example. I could have killed him, Bono later reflected.

Growing up in a country where the words Protestant and Catholic described warring camps as much as they did religious beliefs, Bono, the child of a Catholic father and Protestant mother, had a gnawing need for answers. He explored the roots of Christianity by attending Bible classes and worship services. To this day, he credits those teachings for his passionate stance on social issues - though he shuns narrow interpretations. I dont see Jesus Christ as being part of any religion, he has said. Religion to me is almost like when God leaves - and then people devise a set of rules to fill the space.

The young mans search eventually led him to the quiet [and] mysterious Alison Stewart. The two met in the middle 1970s and were married in 1982. Bono, who wrote The Sweetest Thing in 1987 after missing Alisons birthday, says: There was something so still about her, and, to a person who is not still, it was the most attractive thing in the world.

In fact, Bonos energy, earnest outspokenness, and his ability to charm his school friends with a good story gave rise to a more complimentary nickname, Bono Vox - a variation on the name of a local hearing-aid store but, more to the point, a schoolboy Latin rendition of good voice. By the time U2 released its second album in 1981, Bono had dropped the Vox. That was roughly five years and two bygone band names later. The group originally called itself Feedback, then switched to The Hype, before settling on U2.

Bonos started on the path to rock stardom after he responded to a mundane bulletin-board appeal for musicians. Hitching a ride on the back of a friends bike, his future began to emerge in the kitchen of schoolmate and future band mate, Larry Mullen, Jr. They were joined by David Evans (now known as The Edge), his brother Dick (who eventually chose engineering over music), and Adam Clayton.

As Mullen tells it, Bono got to be the lead singer not because of his great voice, but because he didnt have a guitar, an amp, or transport. What else was he going to do? Given his inexhaustible energy, it was inevitable that Bono would find more to do than Mullen or anyone else could have imagined.