The Rolling Stone Interview: The Edge

Nestled among warehouses in the drab Dublin dockside, Windmill Lane Studios would, under normal circumstances, hardly qualify as a tourist attraction. Since the ascension of U2 to the highest levels of rock stardom, however, the scene outside Windmill Lane has changed dramatically. The building, which functions as a sort of command center for the group's activities, has been covered with graffiti — "Italy Loves U2"; "Edge, I Think You're Brill"; "Dear U2, I've Been Here '40' Times and 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'" — while dozens of faithful fans patiently stand watch along the street, hoping to catch at least a glimpse of rock's reigning heroes.

On one particularly rainy, windswept day in mid-January, their perseverance pays off when U2's guitarist, the Edge, arrives in his 1971 Volkswagen Beetle. As a security guard looks on, Edge rolls down his car window and obliges a few fans with autographs. Then another fan, in his 'mid to late' twenties, approaches and asks for money to get home. Edge gives him seven pounds, then realizes it's time to move on. "It's kind of hard to deal with," he says of the adulation. "I find it a little embarrassing."

Though Bono is the more public face of U2, Edge — whose nickname resulted in part from his tendency to observe things from the sidelines — has quietly played a key role in the band's journey to the top. His minimal, echo-laden style of guitar playing has virtually defined the group's sound and spawned a legion of imitators. He is also responsible for writing the lion's share of the group's music, as well as contributing a few key lyric ideas.

Born Dave Evans in East London in 1961, Edge moved to Dublin with his family when he was a year old. Settling in the middle-class suburb of Malahide, the Evanses, Protestants of Welsh heritage, felt a little like outsiders in largely Roman Catholic Ireland. That sense of not quite fitting in led Edge to music — he took up guitar when he was nine — and when U2 was formed in late 1978, he finally found a focus for his energy. "It became an obsession pretty quickly," he recalls. "We all realized that we really liked doing it. We loved playing together and writing songs together."

And that feeling is now stronger than ever, Edge insists. "I've found out recently that I really want to be in this group," he says. "I don't want to write screenplays or soundtracks or do anything else. I want to write songs, and I want to record them, and I want to go on the road with those songs."