Bono has opened up about his relationship with his son, Inhaler‘s Elijah Hewson, saying he’s “not bothered” about his father being a famous rockstar.
During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the U2 frontman was asked about the time he found out that one of his children was camping at the Joshua Tree National Park in California, and had failed to tell his dad.
“Our kids, they’re extraordinary,” the singer responded. “That was the youngest, John – he’s probably the wisest of them all. But I was saying, ‘You know we [have] an album called ‘The Joshua Tree’? [1987]. [John said], ‘I’ll get there, I’ll get there’.”
Bono then went on to talk about his eldest son, Elijah. “He’s in a band called Inhaler – incredible,” he continued. “And he’s just completely not bothered by the fact that his father might be a bit famous or whatever. I mean, really not bothered.”
The frontman went on to agree that he and Elijah have a different relationship from the one he shared with his own father. “He’s very cool with [me being a famous musician],” he told host Kimmel.
“On his last album [2025’s ‘Open Wide’] is a song called ‘All I Got Is You’. I said, ‘Elijah, you know U2 has quite a well-known song called ‘All I Want Is You’. If you’re worried about any comparisons ’cause you’re a high school band [like U2] and you’ve got this three-octave range…’. He said, ‘No’.”
Bono concluded, jokingly: “I did say to all our kids, ‘The great thing about advice is you don’t have to take it’. And they haven’t.” You can watch the interview in full in the video below.
Bono’s appearance on the US chat show came in support of his new film, Bono: Stories Of Surrender, which received a seven-minute standing ovation at its recent Cannes premiere.
Earlier this year, his son Elijah talked about the advice he’d been given from his father, and addressed the “expectation” that Inhaler would be handed opportunities by having a famous parent.
“I’d love to get a bit more advice, to be honest,” he said. “The best advice I’ve got from him has been the usual kind of advice you would get from a parent, which is, ‘Don’t let it pass you by. This is a moment, you’re in it, and you have to throw yourself at it’.”
He added: “There definitely is an expectation of failure from people and an expectation that we would be handed things. While there have been advantages for sure, what it’s made us do is work really hard because we didn’t want to be perceived as walking into it.”
In 2023, Inhaler admitted that The Edge’s influence sometimes “seeps in” to their work, saying: “We have to be careful about that.” They also hailed the U2 guitarist as “such an important player”.
Back in 2019, Inhaler spoke to NME about what it was like to be continuously tied to the huge rock band. “People always ask: do you get really good advice from your dad about music and songwriting, and the honest truth is… no,” Elijah told us. “Yeah, they’re a really successful band, but I have completely different opinions on songwriting to him.
“It drives us to prove ourselves. I think it drives us to want to actually perform better, and prove ourselves, playing in the toilets and doing all of these mad tours. It drives us to be better. If we were shite, you wouldn’t bother talking to us.”
The following year, the frontman recalled how his dad wasn’t as supportive as he had expected when Inhaler first formed. “They wanted me to go to college, like all of our parents. I think they just kind of saw that I loved it and that we were good,” he told GQ.
“I think that was the main thing. I think if we weren’t good, they would have instantly told us to give it up and go to school. They’ve been supportive now, they really have.”
In other news, Bono has updated fans on U2’s upcoming as-yet-untitled new album – the follow-up to 2017’s ‘Songs Of Experience’. Inhaler, meanwhile, have announced their biggest UK headline shows to date in London and Liverpool.
