U2 Net Worth

The band formed in Dublin on 25 September 1976. Larry Mullen Jr., then a 14-year-old student at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, posted a note on the school's notice board in search of Musicians for a new band—six people responded. Setting up in his kitchen, Mullen was on drums, with Paul Hewson ("Bono") on lead vocals; David Evans ("the Edge") and his older brother Dik Evans on guitar; Adam Clayton, a friend of the Evans brothers on bass guitar; and initially Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin, two other friends of Mullen. Mullen later described it as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." Martin, who had brought his guitar and amplifier to the first practice but could not play, did not remain with the group, and McCormick was dropped within a few weeks. The group settled on the name "Feedback" because it was one of the few technical terms they knew. Most of their initial material consisted of cover songs, which the band admitted was not their forte. Some of the earliest influences on the band were emerging punk rock acts, such as the Jam, the Clash, Buzzcocks, and Sex Pistols. The popularity of punk rock convinced the group that musical proficiency was not a prerequisite to success.

In April 1977, Feedback played their first gig for a paying audience at St. Fintan's High School. Shortly after, the band changed their name to "The Hype". Dik Evans, who was older and by this time at college, was becoming the odd man out. The rest of the band was leaning towards the idea of a four-piece ensemble. In March 1978, the group changed their name to "U2". Steve Averill, a punk rock musician (with the Radiators) and family friend of Clayton's, had suggested six potential names from which the band chose "U2" for its ambiguity and open-ended interpretations, and because it was the name that they disliked the least. That same month, U2, as a four-piece, won a talent contest in Limerick sponsored by Harp Lager and the Evening Press. The prize consisted of £500 and studio time to record a demo which would be heard by CBS Ireland, a record label. The win was an important milestone and affirmation for the fledgling band. Within a few days, Dik Evans was officially phased out of the band with a farewell concert at the Presbyterian Church Hall in Howth. During the show, which featured the group playing cover songs as the Hype, Dik ceremonially walked offstage. The remaining four band members returned later in the concert to play original material as U2. As part of their contest prize, the group recorded their first demo tape at Keystone Studios in Dublin in April 1978, but the results were largely unsuccessful due to their nervousness.

U2 have sold more than 170 million records, placing them among the best-selling music artists in history. The group's fifth studio album, The Joshua Tree, is one of the best-selling albums in the US (10 million copies shipped) and worldwide (25 million copies sold). With 52 million certified units by the RIAA, U2 rank as the 21st-highest-selling music Artist in the US. U2 have eight albums that have reached number one in the US, the third-most of any group. They are the only group to attain number-one albums in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. In the UK, the group have had seven number-one singles, tied for the 14th-most of any Artist, and ten number-one albums, tied for the 7th-most of any Artist. The band's 1,459 weeks spent on the UK music charts ranks 11th all-time.

October was released in October 1981 and contained overtly spiritual themes. The album received mixed reviews and limited radio play, and although it debuted at number 11 in the UK, it sold poorly elsewhere. The single "Gloria" was U2's first song to have its music video played on MTV, generating excitement for the band during the October Tour of 1981–1982 in markets where the television channel was available. During the tour, U2 met Dutch Photographer Anton Corbijn, who became their principal Photographer and has had a major influence on their vision and public image. In March 1982, the band played 14 dates as the opening act for the J. Geils Band, increasing their exposure. Still, U2 were disappointed by their lack of progress by the end of the October Tour. Having run out of money and feeling unsupported by their record label, the group committed to improving; Clayton recalled that "there was a firm resolve to come out of the box fighting with the next record".

After the October Tour, U2 decamped to a rented cottage in Howth, where they lived, wrote new songs, and rehearsed for their third album, War. Significant musical breakthroughs were achieved by the Edge in August 1982 during a two-week period of independent songwriting, while the other band members vacationed and Bono honeymooned with his wife Ali. From September to November, the group recorded War at Windmill Lane Studios. Lillywhite, who had a policy of not working with an Artist more than twice, was convinced by the group to return as their Producer for a third time. The recording sessions featured contributions from Violinist Steve Wickham and the female Singers of Kid Creole and the Coconuts. For the first time, Mullen agreed to play drums to a click track to keep time. After completing the album, U2 undertook a short tour of Western Europe in December.

On the subsequent 1983 War Tour of Europe, the US, and Japan, the band began to play progressively larger venues, moving from clubs to halls to arenas. Bono attempted to engage the growing audiences with theatrical, often dangerous antics, climbing scaffoldings and lighting rigs and jumping into the audience. The sight of Bono waving a white flag during performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" became the tour's iconic image. The band played several dates at large European and American music festivals, including a performance at the US Festival on Memorial Day weekend for an audience of 125,000 people. The group's 5 June 1983 concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on a rain-soaked evening was singled out by Rolling Stone as one "50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll". The show was recorded for the concert video Live at Red Rocks and was one of several concerts from the tour captured on their live album Under a Blood Red Sky. Both releases received extensive play on the radio and MTV, expanding the band's audience and showcasing their prowess as a live act. During the tour, the group established a new tradition by closing concerts with the War track "40", during which the Edge and Clayton would switch instruments and the band members would leave the stage one-by-one as the crowd continued to sing the refrain "How long to sing this song?". The War Tour was U2's first profitable tour, grossing about US$2 million.

In 1984, Bono and Adam Clayton participated in Band Aid to raise money for the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia. This initiative produced the hit charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which would be the first among several collaborations between U2 and Bob Geldof. In July 1985, U2 played Live Aid, a follow-up to Band Aid's efforts. Bono and his wife Ali, invited by World Vision, later visited Ethiopia where they witnessed the famine first hand. Bono would later say this laid the groundwork for his Africa campaigning and some of his songwriting. In 1986, U2 participated in the A Conspiracy of Hope tour in support of Amnesty International and in Self Aid for unemployment in Ireland. The same year, Bono and Ali Hewson also visited Nicaragua and El Salvador at the invitation of the Sanctuary movement, and saw the effects of the Salvadoran Civil War. These 1986 events greatly influenced The Joshua Tree album, which was being recorded at the time.

The members of U2 have undertaken side projects, sometimes in collaboration with some of their bandmates. In 1985, Bono recorded the song "In a Lifetime" with the Irish band Clannad. The Edge recorded a solo Soundtrack album for the film Captive in 1986, which included a vocal performance by Sinéad O'Connor that predates her own debut album by a year. Bono and the Edge wrote the song "She's a Mystery to Me" for Roy Orbison, which was featured on his 1989 album Mystery Girl. In 1990, Bono and the Edge provided the Soundtrack to the Royal Shakespeare Company London stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange (one track, "Alex Descends into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1", was on the b-side to "The Fly" single). That same year, Mullen co-wrote and produced a song for the Republic of Ireland national football team in time for the 1990 FIFA World Cup called "Put 'Em Under Pressure", which topped the Irish charts for 13 weeks.

For their fifth album, The Joshua Tree, the band wanted to build on The Unforgettable Fire's textures, but instead of out-of-focus experimentation, they sought a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures. Realising that "U2 had no tradition" and that their knowledge of music from before their childhood was limited, the group delved into American and Irish roots music. Friendships with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Keith Richards motivated Bono to explore blues, folk, and gospel music and focused him on his skills as a Songwriter and lyricist. U2 halted the album sessions in June 1986 to serve as a headline act on the Conspiracy of Hope benefit concert tour for Amnesty International. Rather than distract the band, the tour invigourated their new material. The following month, Bono travelled to Nicaragua and El Salvador and saw first-hand the distress of peasants affected by political conflicts and US military intervention. The experience became a central influence on their new music.

The Joshua Tree was released in March 1987. The album juxtaposes antipathy towards US foreign policy against the group's deep fascination with the country, its open spaces, freedom, and ideals. The band wanted music with a sense of location and a "cinematic" quality, and the record's music and lyrics draw on imagery created by American Writers whose works the band had been reading. The Joshua Tree was critically acclaimed; Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times said the album "confirms on record what this band has been slowly asserting for three years now on stage: U2 is what the Rolling Stones ceased being years ago—the greatest rock and roll band in the world". The record went to number one in over 20 countries, including the UK where it received a platinum certification in 48 hours, making it the fastest seller in British chart history. In the US, it spent nine consecutive weeks at number one. The album included the hit singles "With or Without You", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and "Where the Streets Have No Name", the first two of which became the group's only number-one hits in the US. U2 became the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time magazine, which called them "Rock's Hottest Ticket". The album won U2 their first two Grammy Awards, and it brought them a new level of success. Many publications, including Rolling Stone, have cited it as one of rock's greatest. The Joshua Tree Tour was the first tour on which the band played shows in stadiums alongside smaller arena shows. It grossed US$40 million and drew 3 million attendees.

U2 received their first Grammy Award in 1988 for The Joshua Tree, and they have won 22 in total out of 47 nominations, more than any other group. These include Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Rock Album. The British Phonographic Industry has awarded U2 seven BRIT Awards, five of these being for Best International Group. In Ireland, U2 have won 14 Meteor Awards since the awards began in 2001. Other awards include one American Music Award, four MTV Video Music Awards, eleven Q Awards, two Juno Awards, three NME Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. The band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2005. In 2006, all four members of the band received ASCAP awards for writing the songs "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Vertigo".

According to Billboard Boxscore, the band grossed US$1.67 billion in ticket sales from 1990 to 2016, second only to the Rolling Stones. U2 were the only band in the top 25 touring acts from 2000 to 2009 to sell out every show they played. Forbes estimates that U2 earned US$78 million between May 2011 and May 2012, making them the fourth-highest-paid musical Artist. The Sunday Times Rich List 2013 estimated the group's collective wealth at €632,535,925.

Achtung Baby was released in November 1991. The album represented a calculated change in musical and thematic direction for the group; the shift was one of their most dramatic since The Unforgettable Fire. Sonically, the record incorporated influences from alternative rock, dance, and industrial music of the time, and Bono referred to its musical departure as "four men chopping down the Joshua Tree". Thematically, it was a more introspective and personal record; it was darker, yet at times more flippant than the band's previous work. Commercially and critically, it has been one of the band's most successful albums. It produced five hit singles, including "The Fly", "Mysterious Ways", and "One", and it was a crucial part of the band's early 1990s reinvention. In 1993, Achtung Baby won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Like The Joshua Tree, many publications have cited the record as one of rock's greatest.

During their Zoo TV Tour in 1992, U2 participated in the "Stop Sellafield" concert with Greenpeace to protest a nuclear factory. Events in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War inspired the song "Miss Sarajevo", which premiered at a September 1995 Pavarotti and Friends show, and which Bono and the Edge performed at War Child. U2 fulfilled a 1993 promise to play in Sarajevo during the PopMart Tour in 1997. The following year, they performed in Belfast days prior to the vote on the Good Friday Agreement, bringing Northern Irish political Leaders David Trimble and John Hume on stage to promote the agreement. Later that year, all proceeds from the release of the "Sweetest Thing" single went towards supporting the Chernobyl Children's Project.

On the final leg of the Zoo TV Tour, Clayton was unable to perform for the group's 26 November 1993 show in Sydney due to a hangover, causing him to miss the dress rehearsal for filming Zoo TV: Live from Sydney. Bass guitar technician Stuart Morgan filled in for him, marking the first time any member of U2 had missed a show. After the incident, Clayton gave up drinking alcohol. The tour concluded the following month in Japan, having sold 5.3 million tickets overall. Q's Tom Doyle called Zoo TV "the most spectacular rock tour staged by any band".

Bono and the Edge wrote the song "GoldenEye" for the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye, which was performed by Tina Turner. Clayton and Mullen reworked the "Theme from Mission: Impossible" for the franchise's 1996 film. Bono loaned his voice to "Joy" on Mick Jagger's 2001 album Goddess in the Doorway. Bono also recorded a spare, nearly spoken-word version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" for the Tower of Song compilation in 1995. Additionally, in 1998, Bono collaborated with Kirk Franklin and Crystal Lewis along with R. Kelly and Mary J. Blige for a successful gospel song called "Lean on Me".

The European leg of the tour featured two highlights. The group's 20 September 1997 show in Reggio Emilia was attended by over 150,000 people, setting a world record for the largest paying audience for a one-act show. U2 also performed in Sarajevo on 23 September, making them the first major group to stage a concert there following the Bosnian War. Mullen described the show as "an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life, and if I had to spend 20 years in the band just to play that show, and have done that, I think it would have been worthwhile." Bono called the show "one of the toughest and one of the sweetest nights of my life". The tour concluded in March 1998 with gross revenues of US$171.7 million and 3.9 million tickets sold. The following month, U2 appeared on the 200th episode of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, in which Homer Simpson disrupts the band on stage during a PopMart concert. In November 1998, U2 released their first compilation album, The Best of 1980–1990, which featured a re-recording of a 1987 B-side, "Sweetest Thing", as its single. The album attained the highest first-week sales in the US of any greatest hits record, while "Sweetest Thing" topped the singles charts in Ireland and Canada.

Aside from musical collaborations, U2 have worked with several authors. American author william S. Burroughs had a guest appearance in U2's video for "Last Night on Earth" shortly before he died. His poem "A Thanksgiving Prayer" was used as video footage during the band's Zoo TV Tour. Other collaborators include william Gibson and Allen Ginsberg. In early 2000, the band contributed three songs to The Million Dollar Hotel movie Soundtrack, including "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", whose lyrics are taken from Salman Rushdie's book of the same name.

The band's 2001 Elevation Tour commenced in March, visiting North America and Europe across three legs. For the tour, U2 performed on a scaled-down stage, returning to arenas after nearly a decade of stadium productions. Mirroring the album's themes of "emotional contact, connection, and communication", the tour's set was designed to afford the group greater proximity to their fans; a heart-shaped ramp around the stage extended into the audience, encapsulating some concertgoers, and festival seating was offered in the US for the first time in the group's history. During the tour, U2 headlined a pair of Slane Concerts in Ireland, playing to crowds of 80,000. Following the September 11 attacks in the US, All That You Can't Leave Behind found added resonance with American audiences, as the album climbed in the charts and songs such as "Walk On" and "Peace on Earth" garnered radio airplay. In October, U2 performed at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the first time since the attacks. Bono and the Edge said these shows were among their most memorable and emotional performances. The Elevation Tour was the year's top-earning North American tour, grossing US$109.7 million, the second-highest figure ever for a North American tour at the time; in total, the tour grossed US$143.5 million globally from 2.18 million tickets sold. Spin named U2 the "Band of the Year" for 2001, saying they had "schooled bands half their age about what a rock show could really accomplish".

On 3 February 2002, U2 performed during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVI. In a tribute to those who died in the September 11 attacks, the victims' names were displayed on a backdrop, and at the end, Bono opened his jacket to reveal an American flag in the Li Ning. SI.com, Rolling Stone, and USA Today ranked the band's performance as the best halftime show in Super Bowl history. Later that month, U2 received four additional Grammy Awards; All That You Can't Leave Behind won Best Rock Album, while "Walk On" was named Record of the Year, marking the first time an Artist had won the latter award in consecutive years for songs from the same album. In November 2002, the band released its second compilation, The Best of 1990–2000, which featured several remixed 1990s songs and two new tracks, including the single "Electrical Storm".

Looking for a harder-hitting rock sound than that of All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 began recording their eleventh studio album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, in February 2003 with Producer Chris Thomas. After nine months of work, the band had an album's worth of material ready for release, but they were not satisfied with the results; Mullen said that the songs "had no magic". The group subsequently enlisted Steve Lillywhite to take over as Producer in Dublin in January 2004. Lillywhite, along with his assistant Jacknife Lee, spent six months with the band reworking songs and encouraging better performances. Several other producers received credits on the album, including Lanois, Eno, Flood, Carl Glanville, and Nellee Hooper; Bono acknowledged that the involvement of multiple producers affected the record's "sonic cohesion".

Rolling Stone placed U2 at number 22 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", while ranking Bono the 32nd-greatest singer and the Edge the 38th-greatest Guitarist. The magazine placed the two Musicians at number 35 on its list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. In 2004, Q ranked U2 as the fourth-biggest band in a list compiled based on album sales, time spent on the UK charts, and largest audience for a headlining show. VH1 placed U2 at number 19 on its 2010 list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In 2010, eight of U2's songs appeared on Rolling Stone's updated list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", with "One" ranking the highest at number 36. Five of the group's twelve studio albums were ranked on the magazine's 2012 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"—The Joshua Tree placed the highest at number 27. Reflecting on the band's popularity and worldwide impact, Jeff Pollack for The Huffington Post said, "like The Who before them, U2 wrote songs about things that were important and resonated with their audience".

In late 2005, following Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, the Edge helped introduce Music Rising, an initiative to raise funds for Musicians who lost their instruments in the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast. In 2006, U2 collaborated with pop punk band Green Day to record a remake of the song "The Saints Are Coming" by the Skids to benefit Music Rising. A live version of the song recorded at the Louisiana Superdome was released on the single.

Recording for U2's twelfth album, No Line on the Horizon, began with Producer Rick Rubin in 2006, but the sessions were short-lived and the material was shelved. In May 2007, the group began new sessions with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois in Fez, Morocco, involving the producers as full songwriting partners. Intending to write "future hymns"—songs that would be played forever—the group spent two weeks recording in a riad and exploring local music. The Edge called it "a very freeing experience" that "reminded [him] in many ways of early on and why [they] got into a band in the first place. Just that joy of playing." As recording on the album continued in New York, London, and Dublin, the band scaled back their experimental pursuits, which Eno said "sounded kind of synthetic" and were not easily married with the group's sound. No Line on the Horizon was released in February 2009, more than four years after How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, marking the longest gap between albums of the band's career to that point. It received generally positive reviews, including their first five-star Rolling Stone review, but critics found it was not as experimental as originally billed. The album debuted at number one in over 30 countries, but its sales of 5 million were seen as a disappointment by U2 standards and it did not contain a hit single.

In 2007, Bono appeared in the film Across the Universe and performed songs by the Beatles. Bono and the Edge also wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Additionally, the Edge created the theme song for seasons one and two of the animated television series The Batman.

The group embarked on the U2 360° Tour in June 2009; it was their first live venture for Live Nation under a 12-year, US$100 million (£50 million) deal signed the year prior, through which the company assumed control over the band's touring, merchandising, and official website. The U2 360° Tour concerts featured the band playing stadiums "in the round" on a circular stage, allowing the audience to surround them on all sides. To accommodate the stage configuration, a large four-legged structure nicknamed "The Claw" was built above the stage, with the sound system and a cylindrical, expanding video screen on top of it. At 164 feet (50 m) tall, it was the largest stage ever constructed. The tour visited Europe and North America in 2009. On 25 October 2009, U2 set a new US record for single concert attendance for one headline act, performing to 97,014 people at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. At year's end, Rolling Stone named U2 one of eight "Artists of the Decade". The band continued the 360° Tour in 2010 with legs in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Their scheduled headline appearance at the Glastonbury Festival 2010 and their North American leg that year were postponed following a serious injury to Bono's back. These appearances were rescheduled for 2011 after the South African and South American legs of the tour. By its conclusion in July 2011, U2 360° had set records for the highest-grossing concert tour (US$736 million) and highest-attended tour (7.3 million tickets sold).

Following the release of No Line on the Horizon, U2 announced tentative plans for a follow-up record of songs from the album's sessions entitled Songs of Ascent. Bono described the project as "a meditative, reflective piece of work" with the theme of pilgrimage. The group could not complete it to their satisfaction, and ultimately it did not come to fruition. The band continued to work on other album projects, including a traditional rock album produced by Danger Mouse and a dance-centric album produced by Redone and will.i.am. U2 suspended work on their next album late in 2013 to contribute a new song, "Ordinary Love", to the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. The track, written in honour of Nelson Mandela, won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In November 2013, U2's long-time manager Paul McGuinness stepped down from his post as part of a deal with Live Nation to acquire his management firm, Principle Management. McGuinness, who had managed U2 for over 30 years, was succeeded by Guy Oseary. In February 2014, another new song, the single "Invisible", was debuted in a Super Bowl television advertisement and was made available in the iTunes Store at no cost to launch a partnership with Product Red and Bank of America to fight AIDS. Bono called the track a "sneak preview" of its pending record.

U2's lyrics are known for their social and political commentary, and are often embellished with Christian and spiritual imagery. Songs such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Silver and Gold", and "Mothers of the Disappeared" were motivated by current events of the time. The first was written about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, while the last concerns the struggle of a group of women whose children were killed or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the El Salvadoran government during the country's civil war. The song "Running to Stand Still" from The Joshua Tree was inspired by the heroin addiction that was sweeping through Dublin—the lyric "I see seven towers, but I only see one way out" references the Ballymun Towers of Dublin's Northside and the imagery throughout the song personifies the struggles of addiction.

Following Bono's recuperation, U2 embarked on the Innocence + Experience Tour in May 2015, visiting arenas in North America and Europe from May through December. The group structured their concerts around a loose autobiographical narrative of "innocence" passing into "experience", with a fixed set of songs for the first half of each show and a varying second half, separated by an intermission—a first for U2 concerts. The stage spanned the length of the venue floor and comprised three sections: a rectangular main stage, a smaller circular B-stage, and a connecting walkway. The centerpiece of the set was a 96-foot-long (29 m) double-sided video screen that featured an interior catwalk, allowing the band members to perform amidst the video projections. U2's sound system was moved to the venue ceilings and arranged in an oval array, in hopes of improving acoustics by evenly distributing sound throughout the arena. In total, the tour grossed US$152.2 million from 1.29 million tickets sold. The final date of the tour, one of two Paris shows rescheduled due to the 13 November 2015 attacks in the city, was filmed for the video Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris and broadcast on the American television network HBO.

At the 3rd iHeartRadio Music Awards in April 2016, U2 were honored with the Innovator Award for "their impact on popular culture and commitment to social causes."

In April 2017, U2 were featured on a Kendrick Lamar song, "XXX", from his album DAMN.