The 50-year-old frontman says the “Let’s Dance” chameleon-like musician was pivotal in helping the Dublin-based four-piece become a success. It’s all Bowie’s throat, he insisted. 

“It’s the high singing, beyond your ‘man’ voice into the feminine. And there’s the staging, the attempt to be innovative,” Bono told Rolling Stone, when discussing his influences. “Bowie wasn’t afraid to use scale, to dramatise things. His setlist was not just a jukebox he could run through. It was drama.”

“It’s not exaggerating to say what Elvis meant to America,” Bono continued, “David Bowie meant to the UK and Ireland. It was that radical a shift in consciousness. The first time I saw him was singing ‘Starman’ on television it was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space – with an Irish mother.”

Promoted by Live Nation and Michael Coppel, U2’s upcoming trek (with special guest Jay-Z along for the ride) kicks off on Wednesday 1 December at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, VIC. The band will also head to Perth on this tour – their first visit there since 1998.