U2 Postpone First 360 Tour Date After Bono Undergoes Back Surgery

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U2 have been forced to postpone the start of their 360° Tour after Bono underwent emergency back surgery today. According to U2.com, Bono sustained an injury during tour preparation and is now under the care of a specialist neurosurgery unit at a Munich hospital. So far, the only show affected by Bono's health scare is the band's June 3rd launch date in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"The band were really looking forward to going back on the road," U2's manager Paul McGuinness said in an audio statement posted on U2's official site. "We were due to start rehearsals on Tuesday in Salt Lake City to get the show ready for the next leg, there were going to be some changes and new material. It's unfortunate we're inconveniencing fans; we'll make plans to reinstate these dates as soon as possible."

Look back at three decades of U2, onstage and off.

U2's 360° Tour is a massive rock & roll undertaking, and as a result, small changes have huge consequences. As Rolling Stone reported last October, the show requires $750,000 a day in overhead, a 170-ton stage, 200 trucks and more than 250 speakers. McGuinness acknowledged the postponement will reverberate in the band's camp. "It's been very disruptive for our crew as well; we have over 400 people converging on Salt Lake City, and so it goes have been told to turn around and told to stay at home until we make our new plan," he said. "We hope to get things resolved as soon as possible."

Pending any further postponements, U2's 360° Tour will launch its 2010 leg three days later than scheduled with a pair of shows at Anaheim, California's on June 6th and 7th.

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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